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Abrai^vm Lincoln 

THE TRUE STORY OF A GREAT LIFK 



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Bv WILLIAM O. STODDARD. 

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COPYBIGHT, 1884, BY 

Fords, Howard, & Htilbert. 



Cbas. M. Gbein Pbintino Compamt, 
74 Beekman Street, New York. 



PREFACE. 



A STRICTLY personal life of Abraham Lincoln has long been 
regarded by many as a literary necessity. 

There can be no question but that the popiJar idea of Mr. 
Lincoln's character is vague, fragmentary, and incomplete. 
His origin, growth, and development, his education and his ser- 
vices, rightly presented and miderstood, offer one of the noblest 
lessons to be found in the world's history. To present such a 
biography is the single aim of this book. It is a record of 
political and mihtary events only as these in some manner be- 
came a part of, or set forth, or illustrated the character and 
services of the great President. The writer knew Mr. Lin- 
coln well, and had many opportunities of jireparation for such 
a work as this. These were obtained during a residence of 
several years, before the war, in Mr. Lincoln's own district in 
Illinois, and as one of his assistant private secretaries at "Wash- 
ington, from the beginning of his administration, in 1861, to 
about the end of September, 1864. Every effort possible has 
been made to put away partisan feeling and the blindnesses 
of personal affection, and to produce and present a faithful 
portrait of the man as he was. 

The mass of material offering required the exclusion of much 
that was interesting but not necessary, and the most rigid con- 
densation, in order to keep the book within reasonable limits 
as to size. Much will be found that is not contained in any 
other biography of Mr. Lincoln, but nothing which is not be- 
lieved to be entirely trustworthy. In the records of his earher 
life, the work of Messrs. Ward H. Lamon and William H. 



4 PREFACE. 

Heendon lias been trusted wherever the testimonies of other 
writers have seemed to clash with it. 

No apology is made for not inserting at any point brief 
biographies of other distinguished men and collateral accounts 
of important matters of history, even though they may have a 
distinct relation to Mr. Llncoln's labors and the great events of 
his day. It is proper, however, to express the author's gratifi- 
cation at knowing that a work is now preparing, by his former 
office-associates, Messrs. John G. IS'icolat and John Hat, 
which is to be an exhaustive historical record of " the life and 
times" of Mr. Lincoln. He does not even enter the field they 
have preempted, but is glad that so good a work is in such 
capable and devoted hands as theirs. 

The time is fully ripe for the study of Mr. Lincoln's individu- 
ality. This book is simply intended to set that forth in such a 
form that it can be studied, and in the hope that a new genera- 
tion of Americans may learn to love and honor and imitate a 
man who seems to have been in himseK an embodiment and 
personification of all that is best in American national life. 

W. O. S. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Portrait of Lincoln, Frontispiece. 

From Photograph by Brady, Washington, 1865. 

The Lincoln Homestead, 20 

Where Abe Spent his First Seven Years, Hardin County, Kentucky. 

Portrait of Lincoln, I45 

Just after his Nomination in 1860. From Photograph taken in Springfield, 111. 

Life-Mask of Lincoln, 201 

Taken by the Sculptor Vokes, in Chicago, 1860. 

A Council of War, 297 

On the tJ. 8. War Steamer Miami, in 1862; Lincohi, Stanton, Chase, 
and Qen. Viele. Drawn by C. S. Reinhart. 

Mr. Lincoln's Work-room, 343 

His private office in the White House, where he studied, wrote, received his 
Cabinet, etc. Drawn by Benj. Lander, after original sketch by F. B. Car- 
penter, whose painting of the " Emancipation Proclamation" has made the 
historic old work-table familiar. 

The Gettysburg Speech, 414 

Facsimile of Mr. Lincoln's manuscript of the speech, copied out for 
engraving, after its delivery. 

"The President's Last, Shortest, and Best Speech," . 408 

Fac-simile of a newspaper paragraph, written out by Mr. Lincoln. 

Lincoln and SmiNER in Richmond, 452 

Saluted by a Detachment of Gen. Weitzel's Colored Troops passing to 
occupy Garrison Quarters. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 
A Chaotic Beginning, 13 

The Birthplace— The Family— The Homestead— 1809 to 1816, 

CHAPTER II. 
Haphazard Migration, 17 

Tom Lincohi's Venture— Little Abe— The Trip through the Woods— From one 
Hut to another— 1816. 

CHAPTER HI. 
Child-life in the Wilderness, 34 

Pole-shelter- Log Cabin and Clearing— Pestilence and Suffering— A Forest 
Funeral— 1818. 

CHAPTER IV. 
A New Element, 31 

Utter Desolation— Arrival of a Good Angel— A Ray of Civilization— 1819. 

CHAPTER V. 
A Genuine Start, 35 

Growth— Schooling— Beginnings of Human Society in the Backwoods. 

CHAPTER VI. 
Borrowed Treasures, 40 

The Art of Story-TeJing— The Wonders in Books— The Uses of Written 
Words. 

CHAPTER VII. 
Frontier Training, 47 

Oratorical Beginnings-Frontier Politics— Hiring Out— A Wedding and a Fu- 
neral—Studies among Plain People— A Glimpse into Law, 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE 

BOY-OF-ALL-WORK, , . 53 

ToU, Fun and Frolic— Books and Speaking Matches— A Severe Lesson in 
Caste— Practical Teachings on Temperance— 1835. 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Flatboat, 60 

A Trading Voyage— Life in the Southern States— First View of Human 
Slavery-1828. 

CHAPTER X. 
"Of Illinois," ^^ 

Another Migration— Of full Age and Free— Farmhand and Flatboatman— 
More Southern Studies— 1830. 

CHAPTER XI. 
A Step Upward, 73 

stranded in New Salem— First PubUc Employment— Miller, Clerk, and Peace- 
keeper—A Wrestling Match— 1631. 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Blackhawk War, 81 

Lincoln a Volunteer— Army disclpUne— Captain Lincohi under Punishment- 
Going to a New School— Regulars and Volunteers— 1833. 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Politics, ... * ^^ 

Luicoln a Candidate— Stumping the District^Def eat— The Credit System- 
Lincoln a Merchant. 

CHAPTER XIV. 
First Love, 99 

A True Romance— Elected to the State Legislature— A New Suit— Free 
Thinking. 

CHAPTER XV. 
In the Legislature, 105 

Practical Politics— Lessons in Public Finance— Blowing Bubbles— A Great 



CHAPTER XVI. 
Bubble Legislation, m 

An Episode— The Lightning-rod- The Long Nine— State Improvements— 
Anti-Slavery Declarations— 1836. 



CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER XVn. 

PAGE 

The Young Lawyer, 118 

Admitted to the Bar— Honest Poverty— The Panic of 1837— Politics again- 
Matrimonial Tendencies— Another Darkness. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Manhood, . . . • 127 

An Honest Lawyer— A Storm— The Henry Clay Campaign— The Old Cabin- 
Partnerships— Coarse and Fine— Elected Congressman— The Mexican War- 
President Making— The Pro-Slavery Formula— Southern Friendships. 

CHAPTER XIX. 
The Coming Conflict, 138 

OlBce Refused— The Missouri Compromise— A Sure Prophecy— Inner Life — 
Ripening— Death of Tom Lincoln— A Written Confession of Faith. 

CHAPTER XX. 
A Great Awakening, 145 

Colonization- The Kansas-Nebraska Act^-The Barriers Broken Down— Lin- 
coln's First Great Speech— Stephen A. Douglas— Growth of a New Party— Dis- 
covering a Leader— An Oratorical Slatch. 

CHAPTER XXI. 
The New Party, 154 

Bleeding Kansas— A Watchful Friend— Trappmg a Trapper- The Blooming- 
ton Convention -General Apathy— The Voice of Faith. 

CHAPTER XXn. 
The Co^HNG Man, 159 

The Fri'-mont Campaign- Lincoln for Vice-President— The Southern Threat- 
Days of Preparation— Buchanan's Term— One Story Higher— A Murder Case. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Political Prophecy, 167 

A Rejected Leader— A Great Convention— An Historical Speech— Nominated 
for United States Senator— The Joint Debates with Douglas— The SpUtting of 
the Democratic Party— Beginnings of a Presidential Nomination— Spring 1858 
to Spring 1859. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
The Rising Tide, 177 

National Fame— The Cooper Institute Speech— Sectionalism— Illinois State 
Convention at Decatur— The Rail-splitter— The Republican National Convention 
at Chicago— The Presidential Nomination— 1859. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

PAGE 

Elected President, - . . 186 

The Great Canvass of 1860— The Critical Election— Southern Threats of Civil 
"War— OflSce-seekers Early— A Wise Decision— Cabmet-maMng— Preparing for 
the Trouble to Com&— A Nation without a Ruler. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
Casus Belli, 192 

Secession Activities— Lincohi's Policy— In a Trying Position— South CaroUna 
Takes the Lead— The Confederate States of America— Traitors in Congress- 
Capture of United States Forts and Forces— A Campaign of Statesmanship- 
Vain Premonitions— A Last Meeting. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
President, 201 

Speaking to the Nation— Diplomacy— Jom-ney to Washington— In the Ene- 
my's Country— The District of Columbia Mihtia— The Flood of Office-seekers— 
The Inauguration— The Address— The True Meaning of Secession— March, 1861. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
War 213 

The New Era— Unification of the South— Free Speech— Copperheads— The 
Cabinet— The White House— Confederate Ambassadors— Traitors in OflQce— 
The Border States— The Sumpter Gun— The President's Call to Arms— April, 
1861. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
The Great Uprising, 227 

A Steady Hand— The Rebellion Extending— The Loyal North— The Baltimore 
Mob— RebeUion m Maryland— Confederate Hopes and Failures— Peril of Wash- 
ington—Arrival of Troops from the North— The Gateway to the North— Arrival 
of the New York Seventh— Capture of Baltimore— Case of Col. Robert E. Lee- 
Secession of Vu-guaia— CaU for Three Years' Volunteers— Crushmg of Secession 
in Maryland. 

CHAPTER XXX. 
Over the Long Bridge, 239 

Respect for State Rights— Secession of Virginiar— Union Advance across the 
Potomac— Death of EUsworth- The Beginning in West Virginia— The Old Flag 
disappears from the South— White House Life— War-time Illusions- Studies of 
Futvu-e Battle-grounds— A Funeral m the East Room. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



The Euhopean Question, 248 

The Secretary of State— England and France— Privateers and Piracy— The 
New Navy— Whaling Schooners as War Vessels. 



CHAPTER XXXn. 
Bull Run, 253 

Checker-board Campaign Plans— On to Richmond— The Two Armies— Dis- 
solved MiUtia— Congressional Legislation under Sudden Pressure— The Presi- 
dent's Message— Five Hundred Thousand Men. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
The Blockade, 261 

Recognition— Accepting the Situation— The Neutrality Mask— Rejected In- 
formation—War Correspondence not History— The Fetters of Etiquette not 
Worn. 

CHAPTER XXXIY. 
Work with Raw Materials, 267 

The New Army— Hunting for Brigadiers— Finances— Preparations of the 
South— Old Gims and New— Presidential Target Practice— Selection of General 
McClellan. 

CHxVPTER XXXV. 
New National Life, 275 

A Shattered Idol— A New State— Contraband of War— Transitions and Pro- 
cesses— Lincohi a Dictator— The Law of Revolution. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 
President and General, 281 

The Army of the Potomac— Newspaper Acrobats— The President's Mail- 
Work of the Private Secretaries— Army Organization— An Advance which was 
not Made— Offensive and Defensive War. 



CHAPTER XXXVn. 
Dictator and Congress, 

The Legislative Branch— The Committee on the Conduct of the War— Useful 
Interference— Councils and Umpires— Political CompUcations Beginning— Ci- 
vilian and Soldier. 



10 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

PAGE 

The Peninsular Campaign, 297 

Monitor and Merrimac— The Story of a Great Invention— "Waiting before 
Yorktown— Civil Supremacy in Danger— A Retreat in Good Order— A Perilous 
Dilemma— The Army of Virginia— Gen. Pope's Campaign— A New Political 
Party— One Army Swallowed by Another. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 
Military Politics, 307 

Reconstruction— Jarring Counsels— Gen. John C. Fremont— A Premature 
Proclamation— A Modification— Another Subordinate laying down the Law to 
the Presiden1r-A New Secretary of War— A Human Library. 

CHAPTER XL. 
Drawn Battles, 321 

The Fighting under Pope— News from the Army— The Changes of Comman- 
ders-Lee in Maryland— The Antietam— Exhausted Patience— Removal of Mc- 
CleUan— A Great Misunderstanding. 

CHAPTER XLI. 
Emancipation, 328 

The War-Power and the Constitution— A Struggle of Life and Death— The 
Hour and the Man— The Proclamation— Waiting for the Victory— An Unpre- 
pared People— Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus— Visiting the Army— 
The Reply of the Opposition. 

CHAPTER XLII. 
The Hardest Blow, 343 

Home-Life in the White House— Death of Little Willie— Proclamation of 
Thanksgiving and Prayer— Circular Letter to the Army on Sabbath-keeping— 
Spiritual Growth. 

CHAPTER XLIII. 
The Trent Affair, 349. 

Two Frontier Posts— Western Successes— A SUce at a Time— Trouble with 
England— Shortsighted Patriotism— A Message to the English People— Captain 
Wilkes Promoted— Border State Unionism. 

CHAPTER XLIV. 
A Dark Winter, 356 

Fredericksburg— A Lost Opportunity— Biu-nside and Hooker— The Burdens 
of a Military Establishment^Congressional Counselors— The Heart of the Na- 
tion—An Extraordinary Ambassador— The Birth of the Union League. 



CONTENTS. 11 

CHAPTER XLV. 

PAGE 

Execution, 365 

Efforts for Compensation to Owners of Slaves— Dreams of Colonization— 
The Future of the African in America— The Final Proclamation— The Slave- 
Owner a Southern Sympathizer. 

' CHAPTER XLVI. 
Dark Days, B71 

A Tax Payable in Men— The Kew Financial System— The States and the Na- 
tion—Reconstruction Begim— A Flood of Calumny— Freedom of Speech and of 
the Press— A Sarcastic Present to the Confederacy— Opposition Taking Form 
at the North. 

CHAPTER XLVn. 

Night 382 

Preparing for a Great Struggle— Popular Discontent— Murmurs of Sedition- 
European Hostmties— Chancellorsville- Bitter IIoiu^ for the President— Dark- 
ness at the South— Statesmen imder an Hallucination— The Second Invasion of 
the North- Hooker Succeeded by Meade. 

CHAPTER XL VIII. 
The Turning Point, 393 

The Eve of Battle— The Surrender of Vicksburg— The Mississippi River set 
Free— The Three Days' Fight at Gettysburg— Lee's Retreat— The Situation 
Changed— The Draft Riots— The New York Mob— The President's Reply to the 
Unpatriotic Elements. 

CHAPTER XLIX. 
Thorns, 402 

Poisoned Arrows— The "^^'ays of a "Workingman- "Western Bickerings— An 
Extraordinary Congress— Presenting the President's Case— Preparing the Po- 
litical Future— Visitors at the White House— Weai-ing Away— Unconditional 
Unionism Portrayed— Voices of Good-will from Europe— The Gettysburg Speech. 

CHAPTER L. 
The Beginning of the End 416 

Keeping Good Workmen— Absence of Favoritism— A PoUtical Revolution- 
A National Prayer-Meeting— The Coming General— Helpless Intrigues. 

CHAPTER LI. 
The Second Nomination, 423 

Lieutenant-Oeneral Grant— The First Great Relief-Dealing with Guerillas- 
Condensation of the Confederacy- The Double National Convention— The Ad- 
mmistration formally Approved. 



12 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER LII. 

PAGE 

On Trial 433 

The Campaign of Calumny— The Reconstruction Proclamation— Traps which 
Captured Nothing— Skirmishing Diplomacy— The Blunders of the Opposition— 
A Union General in Bad Company. 

CHAPTER Lin. 
The Nation's Verdict, 440 

The Rebellion Bleeding to Death— Half a Million More— The Results of the 
Election— Sherman's March to the Sea^The Last Great Battle in the West- 
Changes in the Cabinet— Grant on " Executive Interference," 

CHAPTER LIV. 
A Valedictory, 445 

Putting Emancipation into the Constitution— Sherman in South Carolina— 
The Peace Conference in Hampton Roads— Useless Bloodshed— The Second In- 
augural. 

CHAPTER LV. 
At Last, . , 452 

A Proclamation of Pardon— Going to the Army— The Death-Struggle of the 
RebeUion— Hemmed in by the Hunters— The President in Richmond— Surrend- 
ers of Lee and Johnson— Cessation of the Civil War. 

CHAPTER LVI. 
Peace, 457 

A Rejoicing People— Vanity and Revenge conspire to Commit Murder— The 
Assassination— The Mourning of a Mighty Multitude— Voices from Distant 
Lands— The Teachings of a Great Life. 



APPENDIX. 



Lincoln's Speech, 465 

At Chicago, July 9, 1858 (Ch. XSHI.). 

Lincoln's Speech, 473 

At Cooper Institute, New York, February, 1860 (Ch. XXTV.). 

Lincoln's Letter, 493 

To Unconditional Union Men, April, 1864 (Ch. XLIX.). 

Lincoln's Letter, 498 

To Governor Bramlette of Kentucky, Washington, April 4, 1864. 

Tribute of London " Punch" to Abraham Lincoln, . . 500 

After his assassination. May, 1865. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTER I. 

A CHAOTIC BEGENOTNG. 
The Birthplace— The Family— The Homestead— 1809 to 1816. 

" That's the place, Abe. You -was born thar." 

" 'Tain't much of a place to be bom in. It's a heap meaner'n 
the place we're a-livin' in now." 

A man of little over the middle height, broad-shouldered, 
powerfully built, and somewhat rough-looking, leaned upon a 
long rifle and gazed at a forlorn log-house, not far from the 
roadside, in a wTetched, ill-tended corn-field. At his side was 
a shm, overgrown boy of seven years, who might easily have 
passed for three years older. The growth which had come to 
him so fast was indicated not only by his size, but by the 
queer, thoughtful expression of his strongly marked, sunburned 
face. It was full of bopsh fun, to recklessness ; and yet it 
wore an unchildlike sadness also, as if the kind of human life 
into which he had been bom were already teaching him its les- 
sons and leaving upon him its forever indelible marks. 

" They call it Rock Spring Farm," remarked his father. 

" Do they ? "Wall, I remember the spring well enough, and 
the rocks too ; but, pop, whar's the farm ?" 

" All around, herea-\^ay. It was the first piece of land I ever 
owned, sech as it was. I didn't own it very much, nuther." 

He did not look hke a man who had ever owned much of 
land or of anything else. He was barefooted, and his patched 
homespun trowsers barely reached his ankles : but that was 



14 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

more than could be said of Abe's. On his head, too, was a 
coonskin cap, while his odd-looking son wore nothing above 
his uncombed shock of dark hair. A greasy buckskin shirt 
completed the outer garments of Tom Lincoln, with a powder- 
horn and bullet-pouch slung over his shoulders in lieu of aU 
ornament. His leathern waist-belt marked yet one more dif- 
ference in the apparel of the two, as Abe's left shoulder was 
crossed by the one suspender with which his trowsers were tied 
up, and it met no buttons at its lower ends. 

"Pop, do you reckon you'll find anything meaner'n that 
over in Injianny ?" 

" I'll tell ye when I git back. We'd best be movin' now. 
I want to git out of Kaintucky ; I jest do." 

" Wall, pop, I don't know as I keer much whar we go to." 

Tom strode away down the road, but it was marvelous how 
easily the light-footed youngster kept up with him. Mile after 
mile they went on together, along roads which were only here 
and there bordered by anything which would nowadays be con- 
sidered cultivation. The State of Kentucky was a very young 
one in the fall of the year 1816, and was barely beginning to 
work its way out of the backwoods into the long, toilsome path 
towards civilization. Still, if Abe Lincoln and his father had 
been on the lookout for a poorer piece of "improvement'* 
than " Eock Spring Farm," they would probably have failed 
to find it during that day's walking. 

A poor place indeed, both land and dwelling. There Abrar 
ham Lincoln was born, on the 12th day of February, 1809. He 
spent there the first four years of his life, and it was such life 
as was possible in such a hut as he had now been taken back 
to look at. Its hardening, narrowing, stunting conditions, 
creating barriers and fetters to be afterwards burst or broken, 
are worth a careful recognition and study. 

The end of Abe's tramp gave him a chance to compare with 
the place of his birth the cabin he was now at home in. It was 
just a trifle better, and the land around presented less of an ap- 



A CHAOTIC BEGINNING. 15 

pearance of utter poverty. He laughed a little wlien he saw 
it, not knowing, yet, how much to make any human being 
somber-faced there was in a prospect of being shut up to the 
necessity of spending his days in such a home as that. 

A dark-featured, handsome, but sad-faced woman, of middle 
height, stood in the doorway of the log-cabin as her husband 
and son drew near. 

" Now, Tom, you haven't fetched home any game this time." 

" "Wall, no, Nancy. Abe and I kinder wandered off to Hod- 
gensville, and I met some of the fellers, and we had a talk, and 
then we took a circuit round and looked at the old place. It's 
wuss'n it ever was, Nancy." 

" Meanest kind," grumbled Abe ; but his mother looked sad- 
der than before, and his father went on : 

" Then we struck for home. I reckon I'll take water to- 
morrer. You never seen a deader place'n town is, jest now. 
Kothin' doin'. No kind of fun. No chances. I'm gwine to 
quit Kaintuck, Nancy ; I'm set on that." 

" I don't keer whar we go. "We can't make a poorer out 
than we've made yer." 

Not without an effort. It needed but a glance at the sur- 
roundings of the homestead to perceive the justice of Nancy's 
despairing criticism. The hands of lazy improvidence and of 
the poverty that comes mth it had fallen upon and withered 
everything but the weeds. There were a few acres of plowed 
ground between the house and the forest. A crop of com had 
been harvested from the patch, but such fall plowing as had 
followed had been done by the noses of the hogs and not by 
human labor. It was a place to move away from, surely ; but 
the people who had made it what it was were likely to carry 
with them all its real disadvantages. 

Nancy turned wearily into the house, and Tom did not fol- 
low her. He walked away upon another errand, and Abe went 
with him. Half a mile, not at all hurried, brought them to 
the bank of a good stream of water. A rude flatboat lay 



16 ABEAEAM LINCOLN. 

moored against tlie shore, and Tom looked at it with pride in liis 
eyes as lie said, 

" I made her myself, I did." 

She looked like the work of some such man. A good 
enough craft in which to float down stream ; but no sensible 
navigator would have undertaken to urge her blunt nose and 
ill-balanced bulk in any other direction. Still, she could carry 
weight, and had a cargo already on board. There were a dozen 
or so of barrels, and these, with some boxes and bags and other 
matters, were stowed unevenly around, in such a way as to 
render the clumsy craft yet more unmanageable. 

" Pop," said Abe, " do you reckon you'll ever git her back?" 

" Wal, no. That ain't what she's made for. Reckon I'U 
make enough outen the trip to start us in Injianny." 

The flatboat was looked at and admired, and the father and 
son went home to the slender supper of milk and corn-bread 
provided for them by ISTancy, Tom but dimly knew how. The 
evening was consumed in varying calculations of the sure 
profits of the voyage of the flatboat and the sale of her cargo. 
About all the comment his wife could muster courage to make 
was, 

"Hope ye will. You've traded yer last hog for it, and 
pretty much everything else thar was left." 

" Kow don't you be sheered, Nancy. I'm bound to make a 
new start, I am. Abe and Sally mought as weU keep on gwine 
to school whilst I'm gone. Reckon they won't light onto any 
schoolin' around in the woods arter we git squatted over into 
Injianny." 

The one fact which came out more plainly than any other 
was that, come what might of the trading expedition and the 
cargo of the flatboat, Tom Lincoln had made an end of his 
prospects in Kentucky, and that a new start somewhere else 
had now become a financial necessity. 



EAPHAZARD MIGRATION. 17 



. CHAPTEE 11. 



HAPHAZARD MIGRATION. 



Tom Lincoln's Venture— Little Abe — The Trip through the Woods — 
From one Hut to another — 1816. 

At an earlj hour the next morning, the Lincoln family were 
gathered on the bank of the Kolling Fork to see the precious 
flatboat pushed away. She had been built and launched at 
the mouth of Knob Creek, a stream that ran past their own 
cabin, but with too little depth of water to float so ambitious a 
craft as Tom had now constructed. 

" She'll do, Nancy. This 'ere's the biggest venter ever I 
made." 

" Tom, do you reckon three weeks'll fetch ye home ?" 

" Sure as shootin'. It's only a float down Eollin' Fork to 
Salt River, and down that to the Ohio. Once I git thar, I kin 
sell out the cargo, all along shore. I'll make a location on the 
Injianny side, and then I'll come back a-kitin'. Good-by, 
Kancy. 'By, Sally. Abe, jest you look sharp, now, while 
I'm gone." 

A chorus of Good-bys answered him, and then his wife 
stood on the bank, silently watching the drift of his awkward 
boat down the rapid current of the Rolling Fork. 

" Abe," said his sister, " don't you wish he'd let you go ?" 

" Reckon I do. I'd jest like to be thar when she lops over." 

" She can't upset." 

" Can't she ? "Wall, all I know is, pop can swim." 

Sally Lincoln was two years older than Abe and a good deal 
better-looking, but she was hardly as tall, and he was sure to 
keep ahead of her in mere size. She looked at him, too, as if 



18 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

she were already beginning to regard him in the light of a 
"big brother." She had been originally named after her 
mother, but then, and in later years, there were too many 
" JS'ancies" under the Lincoln roof, and she is remembered 
only as Sally. 

"I do hope he'll git through all right," muttered Tom's 
wife, as she turned moodily away. Then she added, in a 
louder key : 

" IS'ow you, Abe, Sally, jest you git for the Friend Farm. 
Tell Caleb Hazel he's only to hev three weeks more of ye." 

" Keckon 'twon't take more'n that to learn what he knows," 
chuckled Abe ; but Sally answered him, a little shai-ply : 

" Ef you don't take in more from him than you did from 
Zach Riney, it won't do you any sort o' good." 

" Git each of ye a chunk of corn-bread," said IS'ancy, " and 
then you make yer tracks. It's only four mile to go, and you 
needn't be late ef you don't I'iter. He ain't pertikler 'bout 
bein' late, no how." 

"Whether that were true or not, Sally had a sad report to 
make of her brother on her return from school that evening. 

"Licked again!" exclaimed his mother. "Ef yer father 
was home, you know what 'd come to ye." 

" Mom," added Sally, gravely, " that ain't all. He said he 
wished old Caleb and the entire school was onto pop's flatboat 
a-goin' down Eollin' Fork." 

" Did you say that, Abe «" 

" It'd be more'n three weeks 'fore they'd git back," chuckled 
the young rebel. But it may be that N'ancy Lincoln's heart was 
a little full that night, for she took no further notice of her 
son's misconduct. It was nothing new to find that he was 
more than seven years old in all manner of ijiischief . And yet 
his childish eyes were now following her own, sadly enough, 
as she looked around the one room inclosed by the log waUs of 
the cabin. It had always been poorly furnished, even for such 
a home, and now Tom Lincoln's great venture had stripped it 



HAPHAZARD MIGRATION. 19 

almost bare. He had traded nearly everything tradable to 
obtain the cargo of his flatboat, and the place looked dread- 
fully desolate. For some reason he had even taken with him 
his kit of carpenter's tools, — for Tom was a jack-of-all-trades, 
— and the now empty comer where it once had stood spoke 
eloquently of the sure changes to come. 

The going or remaining of the Lincoln family would make 
no changes in the little farm. There was a good deal of wild, 
rough beauty in the neighborhood. Knob Creek could not 
float a flatboat, and was only moderately good for fishing; 
but its banks, up and down through the heavy timber, had a 
reputation of their own for woodchucks, or " ground-hogs," 
and little Abe had long since discovered that there was more 
fun to be had in digging out one of these than in hunting for 
the right way to spell a word. He had learned to hunt wood- 
chucks even before leaving Rock Spring Fann, along Nolin 
Creek, and on Knob Creek he had the company of his cousin, 
Dennis Hanks, in that and in the higher art of catching fish. 

There was almost as much to be learned in the woods, and 
on the water and under it, as from Caleb Hazel ; and yet Abe 
had prospered notably under both his present schoolmaster and 
Zachariah Riney, considering how very few months in all he 
received the benefit of their instructions. 

He was yet to be a hard student, indeed, but without pro- 
fessional masters ; so that in his ripe manliood he should be 
forced to say that all the " schooling" given him from the first 
had amounted to less than one year of regular tuition. 

It was not likely that stiidious tendencies would be increased 
in a Kentucky boy of less than eight years by the prospect of 
a great journey into the mysterious Avildemess of Indiana. 

At that precise date this was still a " territory," and remained 
60 until early in the following winter. The possession of its 
forests, and of the fertile prairies beyond them to the west- 
ward, was stiU sullenly disputed by the red Indians, and the 
tide of immigration was but beginning to set in that direction. 



20 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

For more than a generation Kentucky itseK had been, in the 
strife between the savages and the settlers, the same " dark and 
bloody ground" which it had been for ages before the white men 
came, in endless struggles for its hunting-grounds, between the 
warring tribes of the red men. It was yet to become the scene 
of bloodier battles, the causes and magnitude of which could 
not then have been imagined by any man. The especial cause 
existed and was fast increasing ; but it is worthy of note that 
there were but a few score of negro slaves in the broad reach 
of country then known as Hardin County, and which con- 
tained the several temporary residences of Tom Lincoln ; also 
that the emigrants from Kentucky and other slave States into 
Illinois and Indiana did not go to escape contact with human ser- 
vitude, and did not even become antislavery men, to any ex- 
tent, in their new homes. 

Abraham Lincoln was in no sense whatever born or reared 
as an abolitionist, and such prejudices as his father may have 
had were not opposed to any one particular kind of labor. 

Tom Lincoln came back, and he came by land and on foot, 
and he had a tale to teU when ]!^ancy asked him how weU he 
had sold liis cargo. 

"Sold it? Wal, ye-es, I sold what thar was left of it. 
The best part on it went off down the Ohio, 'bout the time 
that thar flatboat of mine got twisted into an eddy and up- 

BOt." 

" So ye kem back afoot, an' nothin' to show for it." 

" Not quite so bad as that. I saved my kit of tools, and my 
rifle, and some of the barr'ls. I got the boat righted too, 
and I sold her, and I fished up some of the other things and 
I sold 'em. B-ut l^ancy, I teU ye, I've located !" 

" Found a place ?" 

" Best kind ; and not a soul to interfere. It's jest about six- 
teen mile back from the Ohio Eiver, and a sweeter spot you 
never seen. We'U light outen this to-morrer." 

" I don't keer how soon we go." 



1^ 















v<? 






X^\ 







HAPHAZARD MIGRATION. 21 

It was not in Tom's nature to really move so promptly, and 
some days went by before tlie departure took place. 

Transportation of some sort was a necessity, and horses were 
of small price in Kentucky in those days, except for the higher 
grades. Somehow or other, and by whatever title, Tom man- 
aged to obtain the services of two, such as they were. They 
were at all events good enough to carry what property he now 
had remaining, and there was little need of any wagon to roll 
behind them. That, too, was just as well, considering the na- 
ture of the roads to be traveled and the seasoned toughness of 
the bare feet of Tom Lincoln and his sad-faced wife, and of 
their boy and girl. There was no thought of tempting again 
the perils of Eolling Fork and Salt River and the Ohio on any 
kind of boat or float. Tom had had all the water he wanted. 

Over in the graveyard, near Hodgensville, there was a very 
small green hillock, to which Mrs, Lincoln paid a visit, taking 
Abe with her, during those days of waiting. All she said to him 
about it was that if the little boy lying there had lived, he and 
Sally would now have a brother to travel to Indiana with them. 

The day for departure came at last, and tlie route to be trav- 
eled had been determined beforehand. Towns and villages 
were scarce enough in aU that region, and the few wayside 
taverns were on the lines of the more frequented highways. 
Little, however, did Tom Lincoln or his "wife care for that, and 
the children did not know enough to give such things a 
thought. The whole forest, from Knob Creek to the Ohio, 
and as far beyond that river as any one might choose to go, 
was one grand hotel, open by night and day, and wherein there 
was no danger of being elbowed by other guests. Whenever 
a day's journey should be completed it would only be necessary 
to unpack the tired horses and turn them loose to pick their own 
supper. A fire could be kindled with flint and steel, and Mrs. 
Lincoln and Sally could fry a little bacon or cook such game 
as Tom's rifle might provide. They were almost sure to fall in 
with eatable wild creatures in the course of each day's march. 



22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The burdens of the horses were not so heavy that they could 
not now and then take on also a human weight, and there was 
no special demand for haste. 

It would be a mistake to describe the Lincoln family as un- 
dergoing hardships or privations in such a journey as they were 
now making. It was more like a prolonged " picnic" than any- 
thing else. At night, a bed of boughs with a blanket thrown 
over them was as soft and comfortable a resting-place as they 
had ever known. There was plenty to eat and drink ; the au- 
tumn weather was fine ; there was no shadow of peril ; and as 
for any other matter, it was as Nancy had said, and any kind 
of change offered a reasonable hope of bettering their condition. 
So they went on through the woods and opens until they came 
out in sight of the Ohio Kiver. 

" Tender's Thompson's Ferry," exclaimed Tom. " I knowed 
we was on the right track. We'U git across afore sundown. I 
left all the truck I didn't seU right over thar, with a feller 
named Posey, l^ow, ISTancy, hurrah for Injianny ! What does 
it look like to ye ?" 

" Most hke any other piece of woods ever I seen." 

So it did ; and so did aU the country north, and the country 
west of it, to the great prairies ; and so did the J^orthwest, aU 
the vast region which has since been carved into States and oc- 
cupied by so many milhons of happy and unhappy human be- 
ings. 

A mere piece of woods, to look at ; but in among the trees and 
thickets, between the Ohio Kiver and the lakes and the British 
boundary-line, there were worse than wild beasts for a settler to 
contend with. These, too, were there in great abundance : buf- 
alo, elk, deer, panthers, bears, catamounts, wild turkeys, small 
animals innumerable ; these might even be regarded as a resource 
and a perpetual harvest. There, however, wandering in hunting 
and war parties or gathered in their villages, were the Sioux, Sacs, 
Foxes, Pawnees, and a score of other terrible tribes. Among 
the many chiefs and leaders of these was the mighty Black- 



HAPHAZARD MIGRATION. 23 

hawk, even then a middle-aged warrior of high renown, and 
little Abe was to know many valuable things hereafter with 
the help of that particular Indian. He was, in a manner, to 
go to a school of his keeping, and learn in it great practical les- 
sons for the benefit of his country. 

Abe knew nothing of Blackhawk then, however, and his 
deepest interest for the moment was centred upon the flat-bot- 
tomed ferry-boat which was to convey them across the swift 
and muddy water of the Ohio. It bore a remarkable likeness 
to the hapless craft his father had launched at the mouth of 
Knob Creek. The passage was made in safety, nevertheless, 
and so was the rest of the march to the Posey homestead ; and 
here the Lincoln family passed their first night in the Territory 
of Indiana. 

The next morning a lumber-wagon was obtained, and laden 
with the packs from the two horses and the poor rehcs of the 
cargo of Tom's flatboat. To these were added a few sacks of 
corn, and then all would have been very well if there had been 
any road before them by which to travel. 

" I've been thar," said Tom. " I kin find the spot, and the 
trail's been blazed pretty much all the way." 

True enough ; but when he made his choice of a location he 
had l^een unincumbered, except by the rifle on his shoulder 
and the axe with which he " blazed " the trees to mark his path. 
Now he had a team and a loaded wagon behind him, and these 
required a wider path than that by which a hunter's feet might 
pass. There was no help for it, and a road had to be cut by 
good hard ax-work wherever the trees stood too closely to- 
gether for the wagon to squeeze between. The distance was 
but sixteen miles in a straight Hne, but it was much more by 
tlie winding road Tom Lincoln made. By the time he reached 
the land he was to settle on, he may be said to have fairly 
earned it. He did reach it ; and the autumn of Abraham Lin- 
coln's seventh year found him a very new settler in one of the 
very newest of all new countries. 



24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTER III. 

CHILD-LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS. 

Pole-shelter— Log Cabin and Clearing— Pestilence and Suffering— A Forest 
Funeral— 1818. 

A GEASSY hillock in the middle of a primeval forest is a very 
pretty thing to look upon. It will serve well, too, as a place 
for a temporary camp, in the perfect weather of an American 
autumn. Storms are sure to come, however, and storms bring 
rain, and the winter f oUows the autumn. 

" Nancy," said Tom, " we can't stop to put up a house jest 
now ; thar ain't time. We'U hev to start with a pole-shelter." 

" That'll do first rate ; but I do wish we was nigher to a 
spring. That thar water-hole looks as if it mought go clean 
dry in summer," remarked his wife. 

" Reckon not. Leastwise it'U do till summer comes. We 
don't call for much water, no how." 

There was some truth in that ; but in after-time Tom was to 
spend many a weary day's work sinking unproductive holes 
in that neighborhood in a vain search for a weU. He had 
done better if he had camped nearer a spring in the first place. 

As he said, the building of a log-house was no small afiPair, 
while a large-sized " hunter's camp" could be put up in a hur- 
ry. Four fork-tipped uprights at the corners, those in the rear 
a little the longer, with strong "poles," or trunks of young 
trees, laid upon them, answered for the frame. Against these 
an abundance of other " poles" could be leaned and fastened, 
and the roof could be put on in corresponding style, with slabs 
of bark to shed the rain until sliingles could be cut. For 
housekeeping purposes a fireplace and chimney of tempered 



CHILD-LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS. 25 

clay and sticks was all any settler expected ; and cracks between 
the poles could also be " chinked " with mud, whether they 
were perpendicular or horizontal. The earth inclosed was 
pounded hard to make • a floor of it. The household goods 
were brought in and scattered around the humble dwelling, 
and little Abe's first home in Indiana was as comfortable as it 
would ever be. There are many patterns of " pole-shelters," 
but Tom Lincoln was not the man to waste upon his own any 
labor not absolutely and immediately demanded by stern neces- 
sity. 

Thus much having been provided against wind and rain, 
there was " clearing" to be done before there would be any 
farm, and Tom took to his ax. The woods around the cabin 
rang with the strokes of his chopping through what was left 
of the autumn and all through the winter, except when he was 
hunting tlie game required to keep liis family from starving, 
or was absent on some errand to the sliore of the Ohio. 

There was plenty of fun for little Abe, and witli it no small 
amount of work for him and his mother and sister, as the 
clearing went on. There were quantities of brushwood, and 
the like, to be heaped upon the fallen tree-trunks and set on fire. 
There were rabbits and even ^vild turkeys to be trapped and 
brought home in triumph, and the supply of woodchucks was 
all any boy could ask for. Then, too, he could sometimes go 
out with his father for deer by day, and by night for the plen- 
tiful harvest of raccoons. The latter were not " game," but 
their skins had a sure market, and were as good as money in 
payment for anything that was to be bought at the " store" by 
the river, sixteen miles away. 

The winters of Southern Indiana are rarely severe. Old 
settlers say now that the climate was much milder in the old 
days, before the forests were cleared away. The " half-faced 
camp," as people used to call the kind of shelter Tom Lincoln 
had made, so long as it remained open on one side, answered 
its purpose very well. It was as good a place to hve in, during 



26 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

most weather, as tlie old cabin on Knob Creek or tbe older 
one on Rock Spring Farm. There was " settler's comfort" to 
be had even when it rained, in watching the leaks in the roof, 
to know just where to put on another slab of bark or basswood 
shingle when the weather should clear. 

Before spring came again there was enough of land around 
the cabin, chopped clear of trees, to admit the planting of a 
patch of corn and potatoes between the stumps. There was 
no use in spending hard work on any kind of fence for that 
many-sided field. The deer would have jumped over it, if 
made ; the 'coons and squirrels would have chmbed it ; and the 
few pigs Tom had been able to gather preferred to hunt a bet- 
ter living in the woods. 

Except for the company of his sister, little Abe's first year 
in the wilderness was a lonely one. There was no neighbor 
for miles and miles. In one direction lay Big Pigeon Creek, 
and in another Little Pigeon Creek, afterwards called "Prairie 
Fork." Abe knew there were other settlements- off there 
somewhere, and other boys and girls ; but all of them had their 
own woodchucks to dig out, and none came near enough to 
help him with his. Even berrj^-picking, in the season of it, 
was a solitary and monotonous business, unless a bear chose 
to show himself among the bushes, or a gang of deer came out 
through the trees to be looked at. 

Abe's legs grew longer and longer that year, just from hav- 
ing to travel so far for everything ; and all the while the gloom 
and silence and awe of the great, solemn forest was settling 
upon his childish heart, and teaching him deep lessons, too 
deep for liim then to understand. He had no other teachers 
that year. 

As soon as hoeing time was over and the growing crops 
could be left to take care of themselves, there was a great work 
on hand. Nothing less than the building of a solid, full- 
grown, heavy-log house. 

Tom Lincoln's natural aversion to needless work forbade 



CHILD-LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS. 27 

him doing more for Ms logs than to cut them to right lengths 
and notch them for placing, before, with such help as he could 
get, they were rolled and hoisted into their places. They wore 
all their bark after they were in the walls, and that was no 
more than was customary. Then, too, the holes left for the 
window-sashes, which might some day be put in, were just as 
well without for the present, in Tom's opinion. Light and air 
would enter the cabin through them unliindered. So they 
would through the open doorway, in which no door was made 
to swing. The earth on which the house was built, when 
pounded hard, would once more, as in the pole-shelter, answer 
aU the known purposes of a floor, so long as no pigs should be 
permitted to tear it up with their noses. 

The log-house was a great improvement on the " camp," and 
it was hardly ready to move into before there were new-comers 
ready to occupy the hovel the Lincoln family moved out of. 

Indiana had now become a State, with a population of about 
65,000, arid a great tide of immigration was beginnuig to pour 
in. On the very first wave of it, in the autumn of the year 
1S17, came relatives of the Lincolns, for Mrs. Betsy Sjiarrow 
was an aunt of Tom's wife, Nancy, and had cared for her in 
her childhood. With her came her husband, Thomas Sparrow, 
and a nephew of hers, the same little Dennis Hanks who had 
been Abe's playmate on Knob Creek. 

The Lincoln settlement was sadly in need of neighbors, and 
the new settlers were welcomed. The Sparrows made their 
nest in the deserted pole-shelter, and now Abe and his sister 
had somebody to keep them company in the woods, and an- 
other house near enough to go to, Demiis was as fond of aU 
manner of fun as was Abe himself, but there was no other 
resemblance between them. 

The Sparrows were every shade as poor as the Lincolns ; and 
as for the latter, it is matter of record that their new log-house 
contained neither chair, nor table, nor bedstead, other than 
such rough affairs as could be made by Tom himself from the 



28 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

trees lie cut down in tlie woods around him. The cooMng, 
sucli as it was, was done before the open fireplace, with the 
help of one tin oven " with a lid ;" one skillet, which also had 
a lid ; a few tin dishes, and an earthen pot or so. But then 
hot coals could be raked out to broil steaks of venison or bear- 
meat ; in the ashes potatoes could be roasted, or chestnuts ; and 
in the season of green com as many roasting-ears could be 
eaten as the children should choose to gather. 

There was no hardship in all that part of frontier house- 
keeping, and little Abe did not feel the absence of knives and 
forks and table-cloths and a host of other luxuries which as yet 
he did not know by name. The earthen floor grew dry and 
hard and did not require any carpet. It would never fade or 
wear out. Truly it is wonderful how few are the things which 
cannot be dispensed with, and the red Indians, time out of 
mind, had managed very much after the manner of the white 
settlers who were now so steadily driving them out of their 
ancient hunting-grounds. 

When the month of February came again, in the following 
winter, Abraham Lincoln was nine years old, and as taU as 
most boys of eleven or twelve. He could outrun any boy of 
his size among the old settlers or among the new famihes that 
were now coming in and scattering their cabins, here and there, 
through aU the woods. He could handle an ax jDretty well, 
and was a fair shot with a rifle, although that was the one 
backwoods art in which he never made himseK perfect. He 
could hit a mark, living or otherwise, but there was no great 
accuracy in his marksmanship. 

It was well for him and his sister that they were now old 
and strong enough to take some care of themselves, for they 
were very soon to have that to do. The spring of 1818 went 
by without anything especial to mark it, but trouble came with 
the heats of summer. 

From that clay to this, the scourge known among the people 
as " the milk-sick" has appeared locally, at longer or shorter 



CHILD-LIFE m THE WILDERNESS. 29 

intervals, and its cause and nature are said to be almost as 
much a mystery now as they were then. Learned men have 
even declared that there is no such disease, and they may be 
right ; but cattle die of it, and so do human beings, in their 
helpless ignorance. It came that summer, creeping around 
among the cabins of the settlers, and nobody knew where it 
came from or how to deal with it. There were no physicians 
to be had ; and perhaps it was as well, since the strange dis- 
order was to baffle science for half a century afterwards. 
Farms were stripped of their cattle, and men and women lay 
down to suffer tediously and waste away and die, and small 
help could be obtained in any form. 

Among those who were taken that season were Thomas and 
Betsy Sparrow, and they and Dennis Hanks had to come over 
to the log-house to be cared for. 

Then Mrs. Nancy Lincoln was taken, and the house became 
a sort of hospital, with Tom Lincoln to provide for it, and the 
children to do the cooking and the nursing. 

Through the liot, still days of the remaining summer, and 
through September, the watching and the suffering went on in 
the lonely log-hut, and not in all that time was there a single 
visit there of any physician. 

There was no possible thing to be done in that or any other 
cabin through all that region to make matters any easier for 
the sick or for the well. It was a necessary part of the fron- 
tier-life through which Abraham Lincoln was receiving his 
education and development. He and his sister and their father 
mn\ little Dennis did what they could, but Tom was often 
called upon to leave his home for a while. lie was the only 
man in the settlement who knew how to saw logs into rough 
planks and make them up into coffins, and there was need of 
a coffin every now and then. 

Thomas and Betsy Sparrow died about the first of October, 
and they were both buried in a knoll in the woods about half 
a mile northeast of their cabin. On the 5th of October Mrs. 



30 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Nancy Lincoln died, and she too was buried on the knoll under 
the shadows of the forest. About a score of people attended 
the funeral, but there was no minister present to conduct the 
simple ceremonies. A few months later a travehng preacher 
named David EUdn preached a funeral sermon, but to this day 
there is no stone to mark the last resting-place of the body of 
Nancy Lincoln. The simple fact requires no word of com- 
ment or interpretation. 

The log-house was now no longer a hospital ; it was only a 
desolate and lonely place where Tom Lincoln and his two chil- 
dren and Dennis Hanks could stay and learn all the remaining 
lessons of utter poverty in the backwoods. 

Abe was learning lessons very fast, and more shadows were 
gathering upon his boyish face. 

The change in the manner of housekeeping or in the amount 
of it was not so great as it might have been in another home 
than that, and the children could get along after a fashion 
without any mother. Poor Nancy Lincoln had followed her 
shiftless husband into the woods, only to die of the mysterious 
pestilence and to be buried, and soon and altogether forgotten. 



A NEW ELEMENT. 31 



CHAPTER lY. 

A NEW ELEMENT. 
Utter Desolation— Arrival of a Good Angel— A Ray of Civilization— 1819. 

There are many things which cannot be done by a ten- 
year-old boy, a girl of twelve, and a middle-aged backwoods- 
man. There were no new clothes made that winter for IS'ancy 
Lincoln's motherless children, and Tom shifted for his own 
apparel as best he could. 

The spring, the summer, and the autumn of the year 1819 
went slowly by. The log-house grew more dirty and more 
desolate, and Abe and his sister and Dennis Hanks became 
more and more like a trio of unwashed, uncared-for, and haK- 
naked young savages. It did not seem so much of a hardship 
during the warmer weather, and there was only now and then 
a passer-by to make unkind remarks upon the condition of 
things ; but the storms and frosts of winter were surely com- 
ing. 

Even Tom Lincoln at last awoke to a consciousness that 
something must be done, and about the first of November the 
young folk had the cabin all to themselves. Whether or not 
they knew the nature of Tom's errand to Kentucky, they were 
left to do their own housekeeping. 

There was corn enough and bacon, and some kinds of small 
fresh meat could be obtained from the woods by a fair degree 
of bopsh industry. Wood was to be had for the chopping, 
and they need not freeze ; and there were the cabins of neigh- 
bors to go to now in any dire extremity. Still the hunting of 
game over frozen ground, and the chopping of logs in the snow, 
was chilly work for barefooted boys ; and the next four weeks 



32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

were hard ones, in the course of training through which little 
Abe was preparing for the unknown trials before him. 

The weeks went by, and the snow fell, and the storms whis- 
tled through the woods and blew drearily in through the open 
door and windows of the cabin ; but the children made the best 
of it. 

There came an afternoon in December when a great shout 
reached their ears from the edge of the clearing. It was Tom 
Lincoln's voice, and the young housekeepers went out to see. 

He had returned, and he had come with a team of four 
horses and a lumber- wagon laden with some kind of property. 
There had plainly been a miracle of some sort. It was very 
nearly one, for Tom had persuaded a respectable widow 
woman, Mrs. Sally Johnston, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, to 
marry him and come to live in his Indiana " home." Her 
maiden name had been Bush, and before her first marriage 
Tom had admired her and proposed and been rejected. His 
present suit had been more successful, and she had only waited 
so long in order to close up her a^airs in Kentucky. The 
four-horse team was the property of Tom's brother-in-law, 
Ealph Krume, who had been hired to convey the bride and 
her household goods to their new abiding-place. 

Their new mother was no stranger to Abe and his sister. 
She had even exhibited an especial liking for Abe in days gone 
by, and she had now been sent into the wilderness for his bene- 
fit as much as for that of his father. 

She brought with her a son and two daughters of her own,— 
John, Sarah, and Matilda, — and with them what to the eyes of 
her step-children was something like splendor. The wagon 
contained a fine bureau, a table, a set of chairs, a large clothes- 
chest, cooking-utensils, knives, forks, bedding, and other 
articles, the like of which had never before been carried under 
any roof of Tom Lincoln's. 

Mrs. Sally Johnston had been a woman of respectable family 
and much personal pride, and had been led to expect some- 



A NEW ELEMENT. 33 

thing very different from the manifest poverty and squalor now 
before her eyes. She had been told of a house and a farm, and 
here they were indeed ; but she was Mrs. Lincoln now, and 
she did not flinch for a moment from the new duties she had 
undertaken. It was a good deal to the comfortless little ones 
of poor Nancy Hanks Lincoln that her place should be taken 
by an old neighbor and a kind one, but they httle knew what a 
blessing had really come to them. Shy, awkward, conscious of 
the shocking contrast between their own personal appearance and 
that of the neatly clad children of their new mother, Abe and 
Sally could hardly offer the new-comers much of a welcome. 

It may well be Mrs. Lincoln was aided by the sight of those 
forlorn httle folk in smothering any expression of her disap- 
pointment and indignation. 

The mute appeal of their misery went to her kind heart 
overpoweringly. She saw at once that she had a work to do, 
but there was no prophet to tell her how vast were to be the 
consequences of that work — that is, of the part of it which stood 
there in the snow, upheld by the bare, frost-cracked feet of that 
dirty, ragged ten-years boy with so shy, sad, sensitive a face, 
tr}nng to smile at her from under his shaggy mop of tangled 
hair. She told the story of her f eehngs, years afterwards, with 
her own lips. 

" The poor tilings !" she exclaimed, as she looked at them. I 
"I'll make 'em look a little more human." / 

The contents of the wagon were transferred to the one room 
of the cabin, and Mrs. Lincoln's good work began. She had 
been a stirring, energetic, self -helpful woman all her hfe, and 
she took hold of Tom's house after a fashion that gave him 
plenty of work to do. She made him lay a substantial wooden 
floor over the old one of pounded dirt. She insisted upon 
having a good door that swung on hinges, and sashes with 
glass in the hitherto vacant M-indow-holes. Tom was forced to 
trim up every corner of the house, inside and out, into some- 
thing like order and decency ; and when this was done and the 



34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

new furniture was put in place, there was an air of home about 
it all that had never been there before. 

Mrs. Lincoln had brought with her a good store of clothing 
for her own children, and now she showed no sign of par- 
tiality in its distribution. As soon as Abe and Dennis and 
Sally had undergone the novel sensation of a thorough wash- 
ing, they were made to know the greater strangeness of being 
well and warmly clad, and of wearing shoes and stockings in 
cold weather. No backwoods children, in those days, would 
have dreamed of any such luxury without a hard frost for an 
excuse. 

It was yet another novelty to have good beds under them, 
and to lie warm through all the bitter nights, and to feel that 
the winter was forcibly shut out from pinching them. That 
was the first shut door they had slept behind for many a long 
cold night and day. 

Abraham Lincoln had received a new mother, and wonder- 
ful matters with her. He had suddenly stepped out of misery 
into a new hfe. He was clean and clothed and comfortable 
and well fed, with such a home as he had never known before. 
Another and a greater thing came dawning in upon the dark- 
ness of his stunted life, for he had found some one whom he 
could love with all his heart, and love her he did, and he was 
well assured of her love for him. To the end of his life, she 
was the " mother" to whom his memories went back, although 
beyond her, in an earlier and darker hour of his morning-time, 
was the form of his first, his own mother. God is very merci- 
ful to children as to all their early troubles and bereavements ; 
and little Abe had been without any mother at all for nearly a 
year and a half when his father returned from that most profit- 
able trip to Kentucky. 

Dennis Hanks and Sally Lincoln shared fairly in all the 
benefits bestowed. But the latter was never called Nancy any 
more. Although now there were three of the same name in 
the united family, Sally she remained to the day of her death. 



A GENUINE START. 35 



CHAPTEE y. 

A GENUINE START. 
Growth — Schooling — Beginnings of Human Society in the Back"woods. 

There was a surprise in store for the new mother, and it was 
by no means an unpleasant one. 

As soon as her step-son's bodily wants had been attended to 
and the house was in order for comfortable Hving, she set her- 
self at work to discover how much Abe knew, and what. He 
was ^yilling enough to be " examined ; " but who would have 
expected to find that he had picked up, from the teacliings of 
Nancy Lincoln or during his few weeks of rough schooling in 
Kentucky, both reading and writing? Not that he could show 
any marked proficiency in either, but enough to mark him at 
once as a learner of more than common capacity. 

He had learned and he had not forgotten, and he had even 
made some use of his acquirements; and his new mother deter- 
mined that it was time he should begin to add to them. 

Over on Little Pigeon Creek, a mile and a half from the 
Lincoln farm, a log schoolhouse had been built by the settlers, 
near the grand new " meeting-house," also mainly of logs, and 
the two were witnesses that civilization was breaking through 
the darkness of the Indiana woods. A man named Hazel Dor- 
sey had been secured as schoolmaster, and it was said of him 
that he could teach reading and writing and arithmetic. "What 
more could be asked for in the way of scholarship ? Little in- 
deed by the bevy of boys and girls who were sent to him by 
Mrs. Lincoln, with such irregularity as was made compulsory 
by their many home duties. 

The news of their new educational prospects did not bring 



36 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the same meaning to all of them, but it was the opening of a 
wide gate to little Abe. He was growing faster than ever 
now. Since the new arrivals, filling the log-house to overflow- 
ing, he and Dennis had slept in the loft, climbing to it bj a 
ladder of wooden pegs driven into the logs. The bed was a 
coarse bag filled with corn-husks, and was a narrow one for 
two such bojs. If one turned over, the other had to. And 
yet there were now three boys in that bed every night, and 
two of them were beginning to crowd each other in a terrible 
manner. 

First, there was Dennis Hanks, only counting for one boy, 
then or afterwards ; there beside him lay Abraham Lincoln, 
an uncommonly tall, vigorous body of a boy for his age : and 
that seemed to be all the bed contained. But inside of Abe 
was another boy, taller, larger every way, to whom there had 
now arrived a beginning of almost unlimited " growth." 

]N"obody could guess how tall that inner boy might yet be- 
come, with space to grow in. He had but a vague idea of it, 
as yet, himseK ; but it was much that he had any idea at all. 

Quickly, silently, night by night and day by day, he deter- 
mined that he would grow, and his new mother continually 
and lovingly encouraged him. The two were building better 
than they knew, and the whole world, for ever and ever, had an 
interest in Mrs. Lincoln's womanly perception of her step-son's 
capacity and her unselfish efforts to afford him such opportu- 
nities as her narrow means permitted. 

The settlement was now a growing one, and the farms were 
no longer so far apart. A man named Gentry was about to 
open a country store only a mile and a half, or so, from the 
Lincolns, and a village would surely gather around it ; and the 
store and village were also to be a school for Abe, but he was 
to go to Hazel Dorsey's first. His schoolhouse was a queer 
enough affair. It was just high enough inside for a man to 
stand up straight in, and the wmdows were fitted with greased 
paper instead of glass. 



A GENUINE START. 37 

A mile and a half is no great distance to walk to such a school 
as that, if children have shoes and the snow is not too deep. 
Reading and writing and the art of " ciphering " were to be 
walked after, and these were treasures none too common in the 
cabins of the earlier settlers of Indiana. It is possible that Abe 
did his walking more easily than the rest ; but it is matter of 
record that before long he could " speU down" aU the other 
scholars of Hazel Dorsey, and could read anything he could lay 
his hands on. 

The first term of study was a short one, for the winter 
melted rapidly away, and with the coming of settled spring 
weather the school had to be closed, that teacher and pupils 
alike might turn their attention to planting com and potatoes. 

The school at the log schoolhouse on Little Pigeon Creek 
was closed indeed, and would not open again until another win- 
ter ; but the one which Abraham Lincoln was really attending 
could not shut its door at all, and the lessons went on at all 
hours. 

In the first phice, tlie body which contained him was grow- 
ing at such a tremendous rate that he was a man in height be- 
fore he was fifteen years old, and by the time he piissed his 
seventeenth birthday he was as tall as he ever would be. That 
is, he stood, barefooted, six feet and four inches of thin and 
bony awkwardness. It was just such a body, doubtless, as was 
required for the residence of such a boy as he was. There 
would never be any great amount of mere polish or elegance 
about either it or him ; but vast stores of natural strength were 
forming in both, capable of midergoing severe training for the 
work before them. 

Good Mrs. Lincoln very soon despaired of keeping Abraham 
in clothes that would fit him. It was not so much that he 
wore tilings out too rapidly, as that he grew out of and away 
from whatever she could put upon him. There was yet an- 
other difficulty. Cloth of any kind was scarce and dear, and a 
great part of any boy's apparel had to be made of buckskin, 



38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and that is a material which can hardly cease to shrink and 
shrivel. So, while Abe's long legs were continually lengthen- 
ing, his buckskin trowsers were continually diminishing, from 
day to day, in their capacity for holding or covering the legs 
they were provided for. However loose they might be when 
made, a few wettings in dewy corn-fields and rainy woods, or 
in fording the creeks and sloughs, would surely produce a 
tighter fit than any tailor could plan. 

Stockings were out of the question at any time ; and when, 
on special occasions or in cold weather, the luxury of shoes was 
to be indulged in, these were always of a low-quartered leather- 
saving pattern. All shoemaking among the settlers was done 
at home or by some neighbor who had picked up enough of 
the cobbler's art to put together such materials as might be 
brought to him. 

There was apt to be an ample length of bare blue ankles be- 
tween the lower border of Abe's tight buckskins and the tops 
of his home-made shoes ; and this was a peculiarity of his ward- 
robe which clung to liim for years and years, l^evertheless, 
except for growing out of it so fast and so far, he did not dif- 
fer much in his apparel from any other boy among the settlers 
near Little Pigeon Creek. Some of the very latest arrivals 
might wear for a season the garments they came in, but in due 
course of wear and tear these were sure to be replaced by the 
regular backwoods uniform. 

The boys were somewhat worse off than the girls with refer- 
ence to clothing, for a gown of hnsey-woolsey or of homespun 
jeans, no matter how skimp its pattern or how high its waist 
might be, could be provided with "tucks" to let out, from 
time to time, like the reefs of a sail. The forest maidens, how- 
ever, were as independent as their brothers in the matter of 
shoes and stockings. Strict economy required that, in all good 
weather and in some that was a little bad, a young lady going 
to meeting or to an evening party should carry her shoes in 
her hand until near her destination. It was even expected that 



A GENUINE START. 39 

if, in the course of an evening, there should be over-much danc- 
ing performed, she should take them off again, lest a good pair 
of shoes should be wasted frivolously. 

Social features were steadily increasing in number and im- ' 
portance, now there were so many neighbors within a few 
miles of Mr. Gentry's store. The beginning of a village had 
been fairly made, and religious meetings of several kinds, and 
parties and merry-makings of a great many kinds, broke rapidly 
in upon the old-time monotony of frontier life. The woods 
had ceased to be a wilderness. 



40 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTEE YI. 

BOKEOWED TKEASIJEES. 

The Art of Story-Telling— The "Wonders in Books— The Uses of Written 
Words. 

Abraham Lestcoln was just the kind of boy to speedily 
make the acquaintance of every new family as soon as he 
heard of its arrival. 

It was not only that he was of an eminently sociable disposi- 
tion. His few weeks of training under Hazel Dorsey had once 
more brought to his mind a great and mysterious fact of 
human life, and its meaning was taking feverish possession of 
him. There were books ! 

He had seen a very few, and knew but little about the man- 
ner of their making ; and even less definite were his ideas of 
what might be in them. There was something weird and 
wonderful in their very existence, and there was no telling 
what wonder of a book a new family might own and bring 
with them. He already knew of men who had brought whole 
libraries ; two, three, four, perhaps half a dozen books gath- 
ered under one roof. It was worth while to walk a few miles, 
and then to talk around and bear a helping hand at chopping or 
something, to make acquaintance with human beings from 
whom such a treasure as a bound volume might perhaps be 
afterwards borrowed. 

The unprinted learning of the backwoods, fact and fiction, 
history and humor, travels from memory to memory by word 
of mouth. Abe already knew and could teU more stories of 
all sorts than any other scholar of Hazel Dorsey ; but he came 
home one day from a borrowing expedition with a book that 
could beat him completely. He had found a copy of ^sops^ 



BORROWED TREASURES. 41 

Fables, and lie was to learn from it how to put sharp points to 
his stories, at need, and make invaluable weapons of them. 
Before he had read that book through more than a score of times, 
he could make over into an arrowy " fable," with a moral of 
some kind or a sting at the end of it, almost any anecdote or 
incident with which his memory was stored, and -^sop had 
been his schoolmaster in the subtle art of doing it well. 

A good story-teller was an important public acquisition, and 
Abe's popularity was assured in all the wide and growing 
circle of his acquaintances. 

The Fables were a borrowed book, and had to be returned in 
time ; but before long their place was filled by a story-teller of 
a very different kind, sure to leave behind him an equally in- 
delible mark on the mind of his young reader. 

Abe's new prize came near getting him into disgrace for 
neglecting his share of the growing com. How could a boy 
do justice to a corn-field with such a treat awaiting him in his 
mother's cupboard at the house 'i 

An English tinker had written it : a low fellow who spent 
many years of his life in jail for using his tongue too freely. 
His name was John Bunyan, and he could hardly have been 
poorer if he had settled in Indiana before it became a State. 
Still, he had written the " Pilgrim's Progress," and Abe Lincoln 
had now borrowed a stray copy of it. Before that book went 
home, Abe knew it almost by heart. It was impossible to do 
that without learning a great deal, even if a dull and unim- 
pressible boy had been the learner ; and the lessons taught by 
Bunyan through that marvelous pilgrimage were the very 
lessons Abe Lincoln's education thus far had left him in need 
of. All the life around him, from his cradle, had been and 
still was coarse, rude, earthy, sensuous, to the last degree sor- 
did and unspi ritual. 

Other books turned up here and there, and the family 
Bil^le at home was an unfailing resource to Abe for every- 
thing but theology. 



42 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The summer and fall went by and winter came, but no 
school came with it. For some reason Hazel Dorsey failed to 
gather again his scattered pupils, and it was a full year more 
before the little log seminary could renew its usefulness. 
Then came a new teacher with many new ways. Mr. Andrew 
Crawford saw at once that the young people who came troop- 
ing around him were in need of other things as well as reading 
and writing, or even arithmetic. His own scholarship was 
equal to reasonable demands, and he could carry them as far as 
the " rule of three," but he could appease no hunger for any 
higher mathematics. Such merely ornamental branches as 
grammar and geography were not insisted on by the parents 
who employed him, but he was willing to add, of his own free 
gift, other and valuable instruction. From the outset he be- 
gan to teach them " manners," and no such thing had been 
heard of before in all that settlement. Every pupil was taught 
and drilled in the proper method of getting into a room and 
getting out of it, with all the kindred niceties of making intro- 
ductions and acquaintanceships. There was abundant fun in 
it for the boys and girls ; and the next best thing to that was 
Mr. Crawford's great attention to the correctness of their 
S]3elling. 

It was not long before Abe's book-training began to show 
its fruits. He was acknowledged to be the leader of the school 
in the matter of putting together the right letters to make up 
a word. He became, in fact, a sort of good-natured walking 
dictionary for the rest, and it was at times needful to turn so 
willing a prompter out of doors during contested matches or 
perplexing recitations. 

One day the spelling-class embraced nearly the entire school, 
and Abe had been duly turned out, after a terrific threat from Mr. 
Crawford that he would keep his victims there all night if they 
failed to give the correct spelling of the hard word " defied." 
There was indeed work before a mob of young people every 
soul of whom was possessed with a conviction that the verbal 



BORROWED TREASURES. 43 

fitninbling-block had a " y" in it. All aroimd the class it went, 
and half-way around again but just as it reached a favorite 
of his named Polly Roby, there was Abe's head at the open 
window behind the master, with a finger in one eye and a sug- 
gestive wink in the other. 

Polly's quick wits caught the hint ; the awful word was con- 
quered in a second, and Andrew Crawford was sure there had 
been no unfair assistance given by Abraham Lincoln. 

There was one other department of that primitive schooling 
in which Abe stood all alone. He was the only scholar who 
insisted on turning his writing-lessons into any kind of " com- 
positions." It was altogether out of Andrew Crawford's line 
and beyond him. He would not have done any such thing 
himself, and he would not encourage in wild literary extrava- 
gance a lot of children whose life-business was to be the raising 
of com and the making of pork. Perliaps even Abe might 
not have undertaken it so very early if he had not found a 
work of common humanity calHng for the use of his pen. 

There wa.s not an animal in the woods for which he had not 
a kindly feeling. Even the woodclmcks he dug out of their 
holes were in a manner his neighbors, and the land-turtles got 
out of his way, so far as any danger to them was concerned, 
mainly because he might carelessly step on them with his im- 
mense feet. The other boys were not by any means so tender- 
hearted, and a terrapin marching away from some of them 
with a live coal on his back offered a fine subject to Abe for 
an essay upon " Cruelty to Animals." 

It was first given orally to the young savages who were mal- 
treating the helpless terrapin. Then it came out in slowly 
written sentences in Abe's copy-book. Then it grew and wid- 
ened into a full-sized " composition," and Abe's career as a 
writer had fairly begun. He had learned to spell words, and 
now he had discovered for himself the great art of making 
them stand in effective order upon paper. Still, paper was 
scarce, and it was necessary to be exceedingly economical in 



44 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the use of it. No word could go down upon suet precious 
material until tlie writer felt very sure it was the best one he 
could use in that place, and no more could be employed than 
were needed to do the work in hand and express the exact 
meaning intended. The scarcity of paper, therefore, was itself 
an excellent teacher, continually forcing the young essapst to 
avoid the most common fault of all writers, trained and un- 
trained. 

There were ways to be invented, however, of overcoming 
the paper difficulty, in part, and of still obtaining an idea of 
how any given sentence would look in written characters. 
There was the great wooden shovel in the chimney-corner 
every night. The surface of it could be shaved clean with his 
father's "drawing-knife," and then, by the light of the fire, 
aided by that of a small torch of hickory or birch bark, the 
whole face of the shovel could be covered with figures and let- 
ters. By day and out of doors a basswood shingle would an- 
swer the same purpose, with a piece of charcoal for a crayon. 
A matter could be written and rewritten, and anything pro- 
nounced worthy of preservation could be carefully transferred 
with pen and ink to the pages of an old blank-book which was 
one of Abe's choicest treasures. Not all the contents of that 
miscellaneous collection were original, for it contained also 
copious quotations from every volume its owner managed to 
borrow. 

More of these were now coming within reach, from time to 
time. Some of the books themselves were a kind of human 
being. No other settler came into that neighborhood in all 
those days who was more a real man, come to a real new coun- 
try, than was Eobinson Crusoe, and Abe learned most 
thoroughly all the ingenious methods of that wonderful cast- 
away in deahng with dangers and difficulties. 

Blackhawk and his warriors were only a few days' march 
northwestward, and, although there was no " man Friday" to be 
obtained among them, the print of a moccasined foot in the 



BORROWED TREASURES. 45 

mud would still have been a tiling to cause alarm and astonish- 
ment, if found. 

Yet another good arrival brought with him a " History of the 
United States," and this afforded abundant employment for the 
fire-shovel and the scrap-book. 

There were other wonders of hterature which were not to be 
borrowed, but to be read by the friendly hght of the fireplaces 
from which they could not be carried away. Among these 
was a small book which told of more wonderful achievements 
than even the History, for it was Sindbad the Sailors own ac- 
count of his peril«jus voyages. 

There was teaching in that book of a specially important 
nature, for it told of lands and peoples heretofore not so much 
as dreamed of by the overgrown stepson of Mrs. Sally Lincoln. 
It helped Robinson Crusoe to make the world wider for him; 
and when spring came and there were grass and dry leaves in 
the woods to lie down upon, he could loaf under the trees and 
dream of ships and oceans and far-away countries where all 
things were so different from the life he had known in Ken- 
tucky and Indiana. 

He was now fifteen years old, and of course he had heard of 
George "Washington. He knew by oral traditions, vague and 
fragmentary, that the Father of his Country had at one time 
lived in the backwoods and had fought hard battles ^^^th the 
Indians. His delight was great, therefore, when one day old 
Josiah Crawford, the crustiest of his neighbors, consented to 
let him carry home a copy of "NVeems's " Life of Washington." 
It was a small, thin book in a sheepskin cover, but no other or 
greater biographer has ever dealt ^vith the deeds of any hero 
in a spirit of more exuberant enthusiasm. It was slow, intense, 
instructive reading. Each page had to be dwelt upon and gone 
over and over, and there were copious notes to be made on 
wood and copied into the scrap-book. Bedtime was a hateful 
intruder upon such dehght as that, and it was hard to be forced 
away from it and compelled to lift himself, peg by peg, into 



46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the dark loft above, and separated even from tlie very paper 
and binding. 

Niglit after night, with special care, the book was deposited 
upon a little sheK against the wall of the room below. There 
were two stout pegs in the log, and a shingle laid across them 
made the shelf. The book should have been in safety there, if 
anywhere. It was a pity, however, that Abe should have 
failed to examine the mud " chinking" of those logs, for it had 
fallen out just above the sheK, leaving a crack whicli was full 
of peril to literature. There came a night, when he and 
Dennis Hanks were sound asleep, that was full of wind and 
rain. Gust after gust drove in the flying water through the 
cranny in the wall, and the sheK was flooded and the precious 
book was drowned. 

When morning came, there lay the soaked and ruined relics 
of the only " Life of Washington" in all that part of Indiana. 
It was of little use to dry the leaves in the sun. Abe did so 
with sorrowful care, and then he bore them home to their owner ; 
but old Josiah refused to receive them. 

" Reckon I'll have to make it good somehow," said Abe, 
mournfully. " What's it wuth ? " 

" Seventy-five cents ; and I don't know whar I'U git another." 

He might as well have said seventy-five thousand, and Abe 
very frankly told him so. 

" Well, Abe," said old Josiah, at last, " seein' it's you, I teU 
ye what I'll do. You pull fodder for me three days, at twenty- 
five cents a day, and I'll call it squar." 

" I'll do it, and I'll jest keep what thar is left of the book." 

It had been a well-thumbed, dog's-eared affair, and Crawford 
had sold it to Abe, after this fashion, at a remarkably high 
price. So high, in fact, that Abe's remorse did not prevent 
his sense of justice from rebelling even while he consented to 
come and puU the fodder. He and Josiah Crawford were never 
more good friends, and more than a little good-tempered " get- 
ting even" had to be performed for a long time afterwards. 



FRO^^TIER TRAINING. 47 



CHAPTER YU. 

FEONTIER TRAINING. 

Oratorical Beginnings — Frontier Politics — Hiring Out — A Wedding and a 
Funeral— Studies among Plain People — A Glimpse into Law. 

K'ow that tliere were so many settlers, the religious gather- 
ings at the Little Pigeon Creek meeting-house became more 
frequent. "Wlienever there was preaching of any kind, ]VIrs. 
Sally Lincoln was sure to go, and to insist on taking her hus- 
band with her. It made small difference to Tom, indeed, to 
what sect the preacher of the day might belong. He himseK 
had been, in his day, a member of several sects, and not a very 
shining ornament to either of them. No change whatever was 
required when he moved from one into another. 

The young people were frequently left at home ; but they 
had preaching among them nevertheless, albeit with more of 
rough fun than profitable doctrine in the sermons. Xo sooner 
were their elders out of sight among the trees than the family 
Bible would come down from its shelf, and Abe knew its con- 
tents quite well enough to find any text he wanted. 

"Kow, girls," he would say, "you and John and Dennis do 
the cryin'. I'll do the preachin'." 

A hymn or so was given out and sung, and the sermon was 
only too likely to be a taking off of the style and eccentricities 
of some traveling exhorter they had heard at the meeting- 
house. Not always, indeed ; for Abe once preached a sermon, 
on his favorite theme of " cruelty to animals," which was re- 
membered for many years by one little girl, a neighbor, who 
was that day a member of his childish congregation. 

The bom orator witliin him was coming to the surface, and 



48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

preaching in tlie house on Sundays led very naturally to stump- 
speaking in the fields on other days in times of j)olitical ex- 
citement. Abe began his training in that school before he was 
sixteen years old. He advanced so rapidly that before long he 
could draw the hands in a corn-field away from their husking 
at any moment by the droll originaHty of his boyish addresses. 

It was a positive relief to a young fellow who was thinking 
so much and so hard to talk out some part of his internal fer- 
mentation. Political affairs occupied a large share of the 
thoughts and conversations of the Pigeon Creek people, and 
were attended to from house to house as the best possible ex- 
cuse for a visit and chat. 

A whole family could go over and make a call upon another 
family, and visitors were always welcome. There was the 
freest hospitality. If there were not chairs and benches 
enough, the floor was an excellent place for man or woman to 
sit down upon. If apples were scarce, or if the suj^ply had 
given out, a plate of raw potatoes or turnips, nicely washed, 
could be offered instead, with a bottle of whisky : and there 
was the very soul of liberality in the offering. 

There was one feature of frontier hospitahty, indeed, to 
which Abraham Lincoln never at any time took kindly. He 
could not bring himseK to the use of any description of intoxi- 
cating hquor, and in due time he both spoke and wrote against 
what he perceived to be a social curse and scourge. Such a 
body as his might perhaps have been persuaded to accept the 
common custom, but the clear common-sense of his inner boy 
rebelled and prevented him from acquiring a taste for any- 
thing containing alcohol. 

Body and mind, he was now growing with tremendous 
rapidity ; but the lessons he was receiving did not come by way 
of any professional school-teacher after he triumphed over 
" manners" and the spelling-book under Andrew Crawford. 

One lesson of hfe began with a wedding in the old log- 
house, when Nancy, or rather SaUy, Hanks Lincoln reached her 



FRONTIER TRAINING. 49 

eighteenth year. It was the merriest day the place had seen 
since Tom Lincohi halted his tired horses on the knoll and 
planned his first " pole-shelter," Sally became Mrs. Grigsby, 
and left her father's cabin to live in that of her husband. 

It was not too far away for Abe to make frequent visits to 
his married sister ; but within the year the young bride was 
removed to a more distant countr)', and Aaron Grigsby was a 
widower. 

Abraliam was now the sole remaining child of Mrs. Kancy 
Hanks Lincoln, but he was as a favorite son to his loving step- 
mother. The shadows grew deeper upon his queer, strongly 
marked face whenever it was in repose, but there was some- 
what less of that than formerly. The great sociability of his 
nature was called into more frequent acti\aty as time went on. 
His love of fun and his peculiar capacity for making it ren- 
dered him a welcome visitor throughout the scattered settle- 
ment. He was liked by all women old and young for his kind- 
liness, and he was the most popular of all the idlers who strolled 
from their cabins and corn-fields into what had now become the 
village of Gentryville. Idhng, in fact, at all seasons Avhen no 
work is pressing, is one of the fixed institutions of a new coun- 
try, and this may in part be owing to the amount and nature 
of the compulsory hard work. 

As for Tom Lincoln, the older he grew the stronger became 
his tendency to shift the drudgeries of his farm upon Abe and 
John Johnston and Dennis Hanks, but his thrifty and stirring 
wife insisted that the work should be done by some one. Abe 
did his duty by her, as she affectionately boasted in after-years, 
but he was now developing a strong preference for working 
upon any other piece of ground than the Lincoln farm. He 
chose to hire himself out to other farmers for any kind of 
labor, even if his father got most of the benefit by receiving 
his wages for him. His serWces were always in request. He 
could chop more wood, handle more hay, husk more com, and 
lift a heavier weight than any other yoimg fellow to be had 



50 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

for the hiring, and he was perpetually good-humored and 
obliging. He was a favorite with all children, and their 
mothers liked to have around the house a " hand" who, after 
his field-work was over, was equally ready to 'tend baby, go for 
a bucket of water, tell a story, or recite any required amount 
of poetry. His memory held everything tenaciously and in 
condition for instant use. It was stored not only with the 
miscellaneous contents of his scrap-book and with such pas- 
sages of prose or verse as had impressed him in his reading, 
but also with every telhng jingle he had heard. If he went 
to meeting, he could afterwards repeat the sermon almost word 
for word. The very narrowness of his singular course of study 
had put his naturally good memory into excellent training, and 
he did not as yet know so many things, acquired either by sight 
or hearing, that his mind had not ample space and elbow-room 
for all of them. 

From house to house and from farm to farm the taU strip- 
ling went the rounds as he might be hired, Httle thinking or 
caring how thorough a knowledge he was by that means ob- 
taining of the character of the different classes of people who 
were fiUing up the great West. He could but study them un- 
consciously as he went and came, and he was learning more 
about them than some of them knew about themselves. He 
knew from whence they had emigrated, and how people lived 
in those distant communities. He became familiar with habits, 
prejudices, superstitions, religious beliefs, pohtical ideas, social 
distinctions, varied hopes and fears, and aspirations and disap- 
pointments. He learned, too, somewhat of different national- 
ities and the races of wliich these settlers were born or had 
descended, and to what extent they had become intelligent 
members of a self-governing community. 

He could not know at the time through what a school he 
was passing, but every step of his after-life proved that not 
any of those hard lessons-by-the-way, so useless to another man, 
had been wasted upon him. There was no manner of miracle 



FRONTIER TRAINING. 51 

in Ms intimate knowledge of the thoughts and ways and feel- 
ings of " the plain people." 

He began now to seek and find drier and more difiBcult 
studies. A friend of his named David Tumham had been 
made " acting constable" of the settlement, and had purchased 
a copy of the " Revised Statutes of Indiana" to guide him in 
the duties of his office. David was firm in the idea that a con- 
stable should always have his printed instnictions at hand for 
reference, and the book was not to be borrowed, but Abe was 
welcome to come to the owner's house and read the laws. It 
was very different reading from Eobioson Crusoe or "Weems's 
"Washington, but it was pored over none the less persistently. 
Abraham Lincohi was beguming his legal studies, but with 
only a faint conception of what a lawyer might be. Getting 
law from such a book as that was something like getting 
wheat-flour or corn-meal from a horse-mUl, such as they all 
resorted to on Pigeon Creek. There was but one ^vithiQ 
reach ; and when a farmer went to it with a load of grain, he 
set his o^va horses at the work of turning the mill when liis 
turn came. A full day's hard toil turned out about fifteen 
bushels, without any " bolting." AU that kind of finishing 
was to be done at home. Still, it was better than a mere 
hand-mill, as that had been an improvement on the primitive 
mortar and pestle. Some of Abe's law-study, indeed, must 
more have resembled the work of the mortar and pestle, and 
all results were much like the flour from the horse-mill. A 
kind of learning was in them, but all unsifted, and his strong 
memory retained the veriest " bran" of the statutes of Indiana. 

Abe was less and less at home nowadays, but his loving 
stepmother by no means lost sight of him. She had strong 
hopes and convictions concerning his future, and she encour- 
aged him continually. She well deserved the hearty affection 
with which he accepted her entirely as his " mother." He 
gave her so much and so steadily, through all that time, that 
when, many long years afterwards, her great, gloomy, fun-lov- 



52 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ing boy had lived out Ms useful life, and a whole people stood 
in tears around his coffin, she was able to say, between her 
own sobs, that he never gave her an unldnd word or look or 
one solitary act of disobedience. 

So it was a woman, and a " mother," who gave him his most 
important help during those his earlier school-days, and to 
whom he was most largely indebted for the good use of aU the 
rest. His development could not have been the same with her 
good work omitted. 



BO ¥■ OF- ALL. WOBK 53 



CHAPTEE Vni. 



BOY-OF-ALL-WOEK. 



Toil, Fun and Frolic— Books and Speaking Matches — A Severe Lesson in 
Caste — Practical Teachings on Temperance — 1825. 

The Lincoln cabin was a small one. So large a family could 
hardly make themselves comfortable in one room and a loft, 
now that its younger members were so fast growing towards 
maturity. The farm, too, was limited in its capacity, and so 
there were reasons why Abe was permitted to have his own 
way in the matter of " working out." His longest hiring at 
any one place began in the year 1825, when he went to work 
for James Taylor, who owned the ferry across the Ohio River, 
at the mouth of Anderson's Creek. There were books to be 
had at Tayk)r's, and new ideas were to be i)icked up from the" 
people of all sorts who from time to time were passengers in 
the rude ferryboat. 

There were duties for Abe in great abundance, for he was 
man-of-all-work about the house and farm. Perhaps the most 
distasteful of all was grinding com in a hand-mill, or grating 
the green ears for Mrs. Taylor's cookery. His hatred of 
cruelty to animals did not at all stand in the way of his being 
a good hand at butchering hogs in " kiUing time." His feel- 
ings, however, or his books, or his many industries, or all com- 
bined, prevented him from forming any taste for hunting. 
Game was so plentiful that the smaller varieties were a pest 
to the farmers. They were slaughtered to get rid of them, 
rather than for the table. Deer, bears, wild turkeys, were 
made to be eaten, and formed an important part of any man's 
calculations for his supply of provisions for the year. "Wild- 



54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

cats and even panthers were still sufficiently nnmerous to 
render uncomfortable at times tlie idea of lonely walks after 
nightfall. 

It was a wild country if judged by standards accepted in 
older communities, but a change was creeping over the ways 
and manners of the Gentryville and Pigeon Creek settlers. 
They were becoming somewhat crowded by each other. Here 
and there were farms whose borders actually touched, and 
there was much more fencing required than in former days. 
There was greater sociability, of course, and there were larger 
gatherings at the meeting-house on Sundays. Eight along 
with these, in growing size and frequency, came the corn- 
shuckings, log-rollings, chopping-bees, shooting-matches, dances, 
and other contrivances for getting the neighbors together for 
a froHc. 

Abraham Lincoln was not the boy to wilHngly miss a frolic 
of any kind, and as a general thing he was pretty sure of in- 
vitations, for he had faculties and accomplishments which were 
in demand. To his old-time capacity as a story-teller he was now 
adding a turn for satire and travesty, which now and then got 
him mto difficulties, for his love of fun forbade him to spare 
anything worth taking off, and his reverence was as yet an un- 
developed part of his character. Even in carefully hstening 
to a sermon, he was too apt to remember with it every oddity 
and eccentricity of the preacher, and the whole would soon be 
reproduced, with ludicrous precision of gesture and intonation, 
before the uproarious congregations at the merry-makings. 
There was only too much that was odd and even grotesque in 
the frontier preaching of that day, good and useful as were 
some of the preachers, and the irreverent mimic had ample 
matter for his performances. 

From reciting the poetry of others there was but a step to 
an attempt at manufacturing verses on his own account. It 
was not long before the ambitious boy of all work and de- 
vourer of aU books made for himseK a local reputation as a 



BO Y- OF- ALL- WORK. 65 

rhymster. Almost any story, or any satirical attack npon an 
obnoxious neighbor, could be given a better point or a sharper 
eting by being thrown into the shape of a rude but jingling bal- 
lad. It was easy enough, moreover, to secure an attentive 
audience for that kind of " border minstrelsy." 

Excepting religious services and funerals, there could hardly 
be a gathering of such a population without a part of the en- 
tertainment consisting of trials of bodily strength and skill 
among the younger and even the middle-aged men. Into 
these Abe entered with enthusiasm. There were many who 
could beat him with the rifle, but it began to be discovered 
that as he attained his full size, and his tough muscles filled 
out a little upon his bony frame, the rivals were fewer and 
fewer who could hope to excel him at wrestling, jumping, throw- 
ing the " maul" or heavy hammer, or in lifting a dead weight. 

Physical power was of value for many reasons. The men 
upon whom his wit turned the laugh were not always con- 
tented to let the matter pass as a joke ; but even the readiest 
of rough-and-tumble fighters was less prompt to quarrel with a 
young fellow who could laughingly pick up three or four 
times his weight and walk off %nth it. Nevertheless, every 
now and then, and even when trying to act as a peacemaker, 
Abe was sure to find a fight on his hands. The cheapness and 
abundance of whisky was generally at the bottom of such 
troubles ; and they served him a good turn, by im])ressing him 
more and more deeply with the fact, then generally ignored, 
that a drinking or dninken man has little prospect of success 
in any competition with one who is wise enough to let drink 
alone. Frolic as much as he might, and be never so popular at 
all merry-makings, his somber and serious " inner man" was 
master always, and sure to keep him steady. As for mere 
trials of strength, even if forced upon him by the anger of 
others, they did but help him to acquire an exhaustless fund of 
confidence in his ability to pull himself and his fnends safely 
through any difficulty which might be brought upon them. 



56 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

More books were coming now. A man named Jones opened 
an oi3position store at Gentryville, and lie took a personal lik- 
ing to Abe Lincoln. Apart from mere friendship, he saw that 
so popular a youngster could not fail to attract customers, and 
so, for a time that sufficed for reading every book owned by 
Mr. Jones, Abe acted as a sort of clerk and salesman for him. 
He kept no books of account and did not acquire the finer 
mysteries of merchandise ; but he could pack and unpack 
goods, attend to customers, crack jokes with idlers, keep the 
place looking busy, and increase his peculiar knowledge of the 
world he was to live in. It was every way as valuable to him, 
as a piece of schoohng, as would have been another winter 
term under Andrew Crawford. 

During this part of his motley education Abe made himself 
the star orator of the Gentry\dlle " speaking-matches." These 
were carried on in a rude kind of debating club, and the range 
of topics discussed was a wide one. Both the consciousness 
and the love of oratorical power began to grow strong within 
him. At the same time he was thii-sting for a deeper knowl- 
edge of law and justice than could be sifted from the Revised 
Statutes of Indiana. 

The coimty-seat of "Warrick County was but fifteen miles 
from Gentryville. Courts were held there at certain seasons 
of the year, and judges sat to hear causes, and juries listened 
to testimony and arguments and rendered verdicts. 

There, too, men were tried for crimes, and some received 
the penalty of their evil deeds. Others, again, came forth free 
and in a manner distinguished, with the thrilling story of their 
trial and escape to tell ever afterwards, as the choicest bit of 
frontier history known to them. It was no small thing for 
any man that he had been actually tried and acquitted of some- 
thing serious, and he took a kind of rank proportioned to the 
magnitude and peril of his ordeal. 

A httle walk of fifteen miles in the early morning, and with 
no more to walk in returning after nightfall, could hardly in- 



BOY- OF- ALL- WORK 57 

terfere ^th the attendance at court of a student combining 
Abe's length of limb with his eagerness for law. He was sure 
to be among the audience in the court-room whenever he 
could escape from other duties. Kot the judge himseK, nor 
any jury, attended more zealously the fortunes of every case 
he heard. 
"^ One day a man was on trial for murder, and had secured 
for his defence a lawyer of more than common ability named 
John Breckinridge. Abraham Lincoln had been exceedingly 
interested in the case from the beginning ; but when the 
time came for the prisoner's coimsel to speak in his defence, 
there was a suq)rise prepared for the yoimg Gentryville de- 
bater. He had never, until that day, listened to a really 
good argument, delivered by a man of learning and eloquence, 
but he had prepared himself to know and profit by such an ex- 
perience when it came to him. He listened as if he had him- 
self been the prisoner whose life depended upon the success of 
Mr. Breckinridge in persuading the jury of liis innocence. 

Other juries, long aftenvards, were to learn how profound 
and successful had been the study the rough backwoods boy 
was then giving to the great art of persuading the minds of 
men. Millions of his fellow-citizens were to bear witness to 
the capacity he was then developing of so uttering a thought 
that those who heard or read the utterance could never after- 
wards tear that thought out of their memories. 

Abraham Lincoln learned much from the great speech ; but 
he had yet a deep and bitter lesson to receive that day. The 
lines of social caste were somewhat rigidly drawn at that time. 
A leading lawyer of good family like Mr. Breckinridge was a 
" gentleman," and a species of great man not to be carelessly 
addressed by half-clad boors from the new settlements. 

Abe forgot all that ; perhaps not knowing it very well. He 
could not repress his enthusiasm over that magnificent appeal 
to the judge and jury. The last sentence of the speech had 
hardly died away before he was pushing through the throng 



58 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

towards the gifted orator. Mr. Breckinridge was walking 
grandly out of tke court-room, when tliere stood in Ms path a 
gigantic, solemn-visaged, beardless clodhopper, reacliing out a 
long coatless arm, with an immense hard hand at the end of 
it, while an agitated voice expressed the heartiest commenda- 
tion of the ability and eloquence of his plea for his client. 

Breckinridge was a small-souled man in spite of his mental 
power and his training, for he did but glance in proud amaze- 
ment at the shabby, presumptuous boy, and then pass stupidly 
on without speaking. He had imparted priceless instruction 
to a fellow who had yet but a faint perception of the artificial 
barriers before him. 

The two met again, at the city of "Washington, in the year 
1862, under other circumstances, and then the President of the 
United States again complimented Mr. Breckinridge ui3on the 
excellence of his speech in the Indiana murder-case. 

The precise information conveyed to Abe, whether or not 
he mentally put it into form, was that he was a "poor white" 
and of no account; a species of human trash to whom the 
respect due to all recognized manhood did not belong. He 
forgave the man who told him what he was, but he never ceased 
to profit by the stinging, wholesome information. 

It was but a little while afterwards, while he was tempora- 
rily employed by old Josiah Crawford, and when he had wor- 
ried good Mrs. Crawford overmuch by the fun and uproar he 
created in her kitchen, that she asked him, 

" Now, Abe, what on earth do you s'pose'U ever become of 
ye ? What'U you be good for if you keep a-goin' on in this 
way?" 

" Well," slowly responded Abe, " I reckon I'm goin' to be 
President of the United States one of these days." 

He said it soberly enough. And that was not the only occasion 
upon which there fell from his lips some strange, extravagant 
expression of his inner thought that there was a great work 
for him to do somewhere in the future. He could plow, chop 



BOY-OF-ALL-WORK 59 

wood, 'tend store, do errands, make fun, now ; but he could all 
the while feel that he was growing, growing, and that this 
would not last forever. He could feel that the change continu- 
ally going forward within him could not be with reference to 
such a life as he was leading, or to such as he saw led by the 
full-grown and elderly men around him. For him there was, 
there must be, something more and higher, and he was blindly 
reaching out after it, day by day ; but all the others deemed 
him as one of themselves ; better than some, it might be, but 
very much below any young man whose father could give liim 
a good farm and some hogs and a little ready money. 



60 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE FLATBOAT. 

A Trading Voyage — Life in the Southern States — First View of Human 
Slavery— 1828. 

Abe Lincoln had made himself the best known and most 
popular young fellow in all the region round about Gentryville ; 
but although the whole country liked him, he did not at all like 
the country. He was now nineteen years of age, but was still 
subject to his father's authority, and Tom Lincoln was not the 
man to surrender his legal right to the wages of his stalwart 
son. All rates for farm-labor were low, however, and there was 
none too much of it to be sold, at any price, in a community 
where most men could do all their own work and have ample 
time left for lounging at neighboring cabins or around the 
village grocery. 

Abe had long since given up the idea of earning a living be- 
hind the counter of Jones's store, or any other that he knew of. 
He was under bonds to his father, but he made an attempt to 
obtain employment as a boat-hand on the river. His age was 
against him in his first effort, but his opportunity was coming 
to him. In the month of March, 1828, he hired himself to Mr. 
Gentry, the great man of Gentryville. His duties were to be 
mainly performed at Gentry's Landing, near Rockport, on the 
Ohio River. There was a great enterprise on foot, or rather in 
the water, at Gentry's Landing, for a flatboat belonging to the 
proprietor was loading with bacon and other produce for a 
trading trip down the Mississippi to New Orleans. She was to 
be under the command of young Allen Gentry, but would never 
return to the Ohio, for flatboats are built to go down with the 
stream and not for pulling against it. 



THE FLATBOAT. 61 

Abe's hour for travel and adventure liad at last arrived. He 
was given the position of ''bow-hand," at eight dollars a month 
and rations, with a paid retiim-passage home on a steamboat. 
It was a golden vision indeed, yet not so much for the money 
as for the grand trip itself. 

There was society at the " Landing ;" and while the boat was 
taking on her cargo, her tall bow-hand improved his oppor- 
tunities. 

Miss Roby, \vhom he had known at Crawford's school, and 
through whom he had saved the spelHug-class from disaster, 
was deeply interested in tlie success of that flatboat. Kot a 
great while after the completion of its one voyage she became 
Mrs. Allen Gentry, and even now she found excuses and occa- 
sions for coming on board to chat with the captain and with 
his queer, fun-loving " crew." 

"Abe," she said, late one afternoon, "the sun's going down." 

"Eeckon not," said Abe. "AVe're coming up, that's all." 

" Don't you s'pose I've got eyes ? " 

" Reckon so ; but it's the earth that goes round. The sun 
keeps as still as a tree. When we're swung around so we can't 
see him any more, all the shine's cut off and we call it night." 

" Abe, what a fool you are !" 

It was all in vain to explain the matter any further. The 
science of astronomy had not been taught at Crawford's, and 
was not at all popular in Indiana. Whatever sprinkling of it 
Abe had found among his books, there was no use in trying 
to spread its wild vagaries along the banks of the Ohio River. 
He knew altogether too much for his time, and a mere flat- 
boatman had no business to dispute the visible truth concern- 
ing the daily habits of a contrivance so well known as the sun. 

The flatboat was cast loose from her moorings in April, and 
swept away do^vn the river, with Abraham Lincoln as manager 
of the forward oars. Ko such craft ever had a longer or 
stronger pair of arms pledged to keep her blunt nose well di- 
rected. 



62 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

They drifted down the Ohio into the Mississippi, and on 
down for hundreds of crooked miles, borne swiftly by the 
mnddy, irresistible current. It was a matter both of skill and 
toil to effect a stoppage at a landing for trading purposes ; but 
the required visits were made from place to place, and the 
young merchants met with very encouraging success. The 
worst enemy they had to contend with was counterfeit money, 
for they were no experts in detecting the quality of either coin 
or paper. In fact, there was so much more bad money than 
good in circulation up and down the Mississippi that a with- 
drawal of aU the sj)urious stuff at any one time would have 
caused a disastrous contraction of the currency. The all but 
universal custom was to take what came and to pass it again 
without inquiry, unless it were too hopelessly defective in its 
external appearance. 

It was a trip fuU of life-long consequences to Abraham Lin- 
cohi. Now again, for the first time since, a mere child, he 
had emigrated from Kentucky, the budding statesman came 
in contact with human slavery. He had seen much of what 
could be done with white men in their degradation by poverty, 
ignorance, and intemperance. He was now to observe the ef- 
fect of all these upon black human beings held as property 
and not regarded as men and women. He was in a fair state 
of prej)aration for such a study. Already, with patient care, 
lie had written an essay on Temperance, the publication of 
which in a country newspaper at a distance had stiiTed his 
young ambition to fever heat. He had followed that with an- 
other, the leading idea of which was the necessity of general 
popular education ; and this too had been printed. In these he 
had worked out and presented the results of his studies of hu- 
man life among his neighbors. He was now to begin his 
training and preparation for yet other essays which he was to 
print, and for speeches which he was to deliver, in the great 
and temble years that were to come. 

He was not to see the sunny side of plantation-life, such as 



THE FLATBOAT. 63 

it was. Slavery came before him in the shape of negroes imder 
the whip, engaged in loading and unloading river craft, or toil- 
ing in impaid drudgery among the hot fields along the banks. 
He saw negroes chained in coffles, on their way to and from 
the market, and he saw them bought and sold like cattle in the 
slave-mart at ISTew Orleans. Only the impleasant, the brutally 
offensive features of the black curse were permitted to make 
their impression upon him, and the brand they left was an in- 
effacealjle scar. 

All that was upon his inner boy, indeed, but it was to be in 
a manner supplemented and represented by a mark in the body 
he occupied. At the plantation of Madame Bushane, six miles 
below Baton Eouge, the flatboat was moored for the night 
against the landing, and the keepers were sound asleep in their 
little kennel of a cabin. They slept until the sound of stealthy 
footsteps on the deck aroused Allen Gentry, and he sprang to 
his feet. There could be no doubt as to the cause of the dis- 
turbance. A gang of negroes had boarded the boat for 
plunder, and they would think lightly enough, now they were 
discovered, of knocking the two traders on the head and throw- 
ing them into the river. 

" Bring the guns, Abe !" shouted Allen. " Shoot them !" 

The intruders were not to be scared away by even so alai-m- 
ing an outcry ; and in an instant more Abe Lincoln was among 
them, not with a gun but with a serviceable club. They 
fought well, and one of them gave their tall enemy a wound, 
the scar of which he carried with him to his grave ; but his 
strength and agility were too much for them. He beat them 
all off the boat, not killing any one man, but convincing the 
entire party that they had boarded the ^^Tong " broad-horn." 

The trip lasted about three months, going and coming, and 
in June the two adventurers were at home again, well satisfied 
with their success. Allen Gentry had profited the more 
largely in the mere matter of money, but his bow-hand had 
brought back with him treasures of information ; of experience 



64 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and education, gathered all the way from tlie moutli of Ander- 
son's Creek, on the Oliio, to the very borders of the Gulf of 
Mexico. The whole country and the world itself was yet to 
be the better and the wiser for Abraham Lincoln's schooling 
in his slow summer voyage down the Mississippi and up again. 
Little he then dreamed that he was yet to direct the course of 
fleets on that same water, of armies along the winding shores, 
and the sieges of strong forts upon the bluffs and headlands. 

His lessons were not all dark ones, doubtless, but the shad- 
ows upon his face were deepening with so much to think of, 
and there was small probability that he would again settle 
cheerfully down to the dull and empty life of the Little Pigeon 
Creek neighborhood. 



OF ILLINOIS." 65 



CHAPTER X 

"of ILLINOIS." 

Another Migration— Of full Age and Free— Farmhand and Flatboatman — 
More Southern Studies— 1830. 

E^vpiDLY as tlie young State of Indiana was filling up with 
sturdy fanners from the older settlements, it was still a very 
new country. And yet there was a newer and a more wonder- 
ful region spread out beyond it. The yast exjianse of prairie 
and forest between the Indiana line and the Mississippi Riyer 
had been formed into the State of Illinois. Men told maryel- 
ous tales of its fertility, and of the ease with which farms 
could be opened on land where so much and so perfect a 
clearing had been made by the hand of Nature. 

John Hanks, a cousin of the Lincolns, had settled near Deca- 
tur, in central Illinois, in 1828, and his letters fired the ima- 
gination of Dennis Hanks to such a degree that he talked of 
little else than prairie-farming. He eyen made a visit to 
Illinois, and after his return the question of emigrating or not 
was as good as settled for the whole family. Dennis had now 
married the oldest daughter of Abe's good stepmother, and 
had made a sort of start in Hfe for himself, so that he was in 
some degree an independent person ; but Abe had yet a few 
short months to wait for manhood and freedom. 

There were agencies at work to driye as well as to attract, 
for the " milk-sick" had appeared again, and was at work with 
terrible energy upon both beasts and human beings. In spite 
of that, however, a whole year was consumed in the process of 
getting away from the old place. 

Another daughter of Mrs. Lincoln had married Levi Hall, 



66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and tlie young couple joined the westward movement. Yet, 
when land and corn and stock had been sold, one large wagon 
held all the household stuff of the three families of Hanks, 
Hall, and Lincoln. They waited until the latter part of the 
winter of 1830, and Abraham Lincoln became of age but a 
few days before they set out for Illinois. 

A worse time of the year could hardly have been selected for 
wagoning over western roads, but the choice of it was charac- 
teristic of Tom Lincoln. The four yoke of oxen over which 
Abe held the " gad " were barely sufficient to overcome the 
miending succession of mudholes, sloughs, and rivers through 
which the clumsy vehicle had to be hauled. It was an un- 
usually good wagon for those days, although it was the very 
first Tom Lincoln ever owned, and it held together well. 

On the first day of March, 1830, after two weeks of slow 
and laborious travel, the joiu-ney ended at the house of John 
Hanks near Decatur. 

Abraham Lincoln had reached the scenes of his further edu- 
cation, his trials and his triumphs for the tliirty years which 
then lay between him and his highest uses. He would need 
aU the time, and a good use of all his opportunities : and these 
could hardly be fewer or poorer, nor could the obstacles to be 
overcome confront him with more insurmountable stubborn- 
ness, than those he had left behind him in the fever-haunted 
woods of Indiana. 

Some oppressions, indeed, were now removed. He was 
twenty-one, and was a free man and a voter. He could come 
and go as he pleased, and such wages as he might earn would 
be all his own. Beyond that, however, there was little to be 
said for him. Trade, profession, manual skiU of any special 
kind, he had none except the coarse arts of the wood-chopper, 
the boatman, and rough farmer. 

He was free, but his first work in Illinois was given to his 
father, or rather to his well-beloved stepmother ; for he joined 
the other males of the family in building a house on a high 



" OF ILLINOIS." 67 

bank of the north fork of the Sangamon Eiver, out of some 
logs already cut there, and given them for the purpose by 
John Hanks. 

After the new homestead was completed and the family had 
moved into it, Abe and Dennis plowed up fifteen acres of 
prairie-land for com, and spht rails enough to fence it in. He 
had done what he could to leave matters in good shape behind 
him as he went out to toil for himself. But he severed no tie 
of affection in his going. To his dying day he never ceased 
to care for liis " mother" and her comfort, and there was no 
interruption of the full current of her love for him. 

It was a great day for Abraham Lincoln when, all present 
filial duty weU performed, he once for all cut himself loose 
from the heaviest part of the load he had carried for twenty- 
one long years. The crushing weight of tliat oppression no 
man can estimate. Xot even if he has studied never so care- 
fully what it is, and then was, to be a " poor white" in a new 
Bettlemont; for different men take up different weights in the 
Bame puck. Young Lincoln himself had but dim and formless 
perceptions of the tiiith. Neither he nor any one else could 
know or comprehend, moreover, the wonderful manner and 
degree of the gain he had won from his very' disadvantages. 
No one could discern or measure the internal growth, as all 
could the physical and extenial ; but a giant had been trained 
and was still in training for a life-long ^v^estle with opposing 
forces of every name and nature. 

It was about the middle of spring before a begimiing could 
be made in the new career, but from that time forward Abe 
ceased to make his father s house his home. Except that it 
contained his mother, it could not be a home for him in any 
true sense. He never had had one : only a log-shelter to eat 
and sleep in ; while the cattle he drove were better provided 
for, considering their natures and requirements. The life he 
had led had shown him the insides of many homes, and the 
life before him was to do the same : but none of these had been, 



68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and none was to be, his own. There was that in his organism, 
both as to its plan and size, which almost forbade the idea of 
his fitting perfectly into any one honse or family circle, so that 
it should be to him much more than a sort of "boarding- 
house." 

He was now not only homeless but penniless, and it was 
needful that he should make a start somewhere ; also that he 
should begin in the line to which his previous hfe had accus- 
tomed him. His capacity and willingness for hard work at 
once secured him pretty steady employment. He did not love 
such drudgery, but he did it faithfully, earning his daily bread 
under a sort of perpetual protest, and all the while he was win- 
ning for himseK a local popularity similar to that which he had 
enjoyed in Indiana. His friends, and even some of his rela- 
tives, had a certain amount of faith in him, and were disposed 
to force him into activity when an occasion offered. 

There was a little political excitement in the fall of that 
year, and the question of the improvement of the Sangamon 
E-iver for purposes of navigation was a leading topic of debate. 
There was the usual stump-speaking, of course, and among the 
orators who traveled through the prairie country on that 
errand was a man named Posey. He came to Decatur, and he 
made a speech which so much disgusted John Hanks as to 
bring from him the remark, 

" Mister, I tell ye what : Abe Lincoln can beat that all hol- 
low. Abe, try him on." 

A box was turned over for Abe to stand upon, and his career 
as an Illinois political stump-speaker fairly began. ]^ot only 
did he beat the speech of Mr. Posey, but he so completely con- 
quered that gentleman that, after the debate was over and 
when the opponents came together, the vanquished campaigner 
frankly asked his rough antagonist " where he learned to do 
it." 

Abe replied freely, and even told the nature and extent of 
his reading, as if he owed his power as an orator in great 



•• OF TLLiyois." 69 

measure to his books. A host of mere bookworms could have 
mideceived liim on that point if he could have tested them in 
attempts to address crowds of miscellaneous hearers. Mr. 
Posej honestly and earnestly encouraged his queer acquaint- 
ance to persevere ; but he was quite likely to do that. 

The year went by and Abraham Lincoln was still a mere 
farm-hand, jobbing his strong body to one employer after 
another. It did not seem that he had cUmbed a single round 
of the long ladder of worldly success. But the retiu*n of his 
birthday brouglit him something new. A man named Denton 
Ollutt hired John Hanks and John Johnston and Abe Lincoln 
to take a flutboat for him down the Sangamon Eiver all the way 
from Springfield to Xew Orleans. He promised them fifty 
cents a day for the entire trip, with an additional sixty dollars 
to be di\'ided among them at the end of it. For those times 
such wages were extraordinary. 

The bargain was made in February, and in Mai-ch the tliree 
friends went down the Sangamon from Decatur in a canoe. 
For some reason they left their boat five miles above the town 
and walked the rest of the way. They found their employer 
easily enough, but they also found that he had failed to i)rocure 
for himself a flatboat ior the proposed voyage. If, therefore, 
they were to go down the river that season they must provide 
their cnvn shipping. The constniction of a flatboat was no 
fonnidable affair to men who had been brought up as they 
had. 

They went to the mouth of Spring Creek, five miles north 
of Springfield, and set to work. 

The land they were on and the trees they cut down were 
still the property of the United States Government, although so 
near the future capital of the State of Illinois. The logs when 
cut were rafted down the river, to be sawed into planks at the 
Sangamontown saw-mill. That work was done in a fortnight, 
and in two weeks more the industrious trio had their flatboat 
in the water. All the while they lived in a shanty of their 



70 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

own making and "boarded tliemselves." There had been 
fun along with the hard work, for Abe was the hfe of the 
shanty. 

There had also been evening strolls into all there was of 
Sangamontown, and talks, and yarn-spinning, and cracking of 
jokes with the inhabitants. 

Mr. Offutt joined them now, and his cargo was ready for 
shipment when the flatboat was launched. The State of 
Illinois at that time raised but little of any other crop than 
Indian corn, and sent this to market mainly in the shape of 
pork. The cargo therefore consisted of the favorite grain in 
both its customary forms, and Mr. Offutt took charge of its 
management and sale. Ver}^ little of it would have reached a 
southern market, however, if it had not been for the curious 
ingenuity of the tallest of his three boatmen. 

On the 19th of April the boat arrived at ]^ew Salem, and at 
that point there was a miU-dam upon the ridge of which the 
rude craft floated and stuck fast. Her destruction seemed in- 
evitable, for her stem was sinking, the water was pouring in, 
and her loose lading was sliding back as the slope of her awk- 
ward position increased. 

Abe Lincoln at once took command, as if in any time of 
special trouble the leadership belonged to him. Aji empty 
boat was floated alongside, and the cargo was hoisted into it 
by main strength, until the grounded craft was sufficiently 
lightened to be set afloat again. Just how he managed to keep 
her from sinking during that brief period of desperate exer- 
tion does not clearly appear. 

Before he pulled her off from the dam he rigged some gear- 
ing under her stern by means of which she was steadily raised, 
while the water ran out of her through auger-holes bored in 
the bottom of the part which hung over the dam. It was 
Abe's first effort as an inventor, but it set his mind at work in 
a new direction. Just eight years afterward he sent to the 
Patent Office at Washington a wooden model, made by him- 



" OF ILLINOIS." 71 

self, of a contrivance for floating steamers over bars and other 
obstructions in the western rivers. 

New Salem was a small place on a low bluff, and all its in- 
habitants came out to watcli the fate of the stuck flatboat. 
Great was the admiration expressed for the skill and energy of 
the man who saved it. !N'either he nor they, however, had any 
idea that for seven long years that very man would himself 
be " stuck" and stranded in the odd, grotesque, chance-medley 
existence of New Salem. 

Mr. Offutt's gratitude made him enthusiastic ; for he vowed 
that on his return he would build a steamboat to run on the 
Sangamon. He would provide her with runners for ice and 
rollers for shoals and dams ; and then, " with Abe Lincoln in 
command of her, by thunder, she would have to go !" 

The remainder of the trip was much like any other flatboat 
voyage down the Mississippi ; but at New Orleans and else- 
wliere Abe received a repetition of his first lessons on slavery. 
He again saw negroes manacled for sale, maltreated, beaten, 
and felt that it was neither safe nor useful to enter any pro- 
test. No word could be spoken against an iniquity which all 
men declared to be a great good, and a necessity of Southern 
life ; Ijut a memory could be recorded and put away in the 
secret treasure-house of the young flatboatman's heart. The 
day was to come when he should take it out and put it into 
words so plain, so clear, so strong, that the minds of a million 
and a half of voters should receive them as a sort of Gospel. 

After that was to come yet another day, when his own hands 
should be laid upon the manacles, in power, and should shatter 
them, putting an end forever to the buWug and selling of men 
and women in the United States. 

The steamboat passage homewards terminated at St. Louis. 
From that point, all the way up and across the great State of 
Illinois, to Coles County, Abe Lincoln and John Johnston 
traveled on foot, leaving Hanks on the road to make his way 
to Springfield. 



72 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The Lincoln family had moved again during Abe's brief ab- 
sence, but their Coles County settlement proved a permanent 
one. 

This second experience of river life in the South left the 
young giant little better off than before in worldly goods, 
whatever else he may have gained by it. But while he was 
away his talkative friends had taken good care of his reputa- 
tion as a man of muscle. They had said so much, indeed, that 
the champion wrestler of that region, one Daniel ISTeedham, 
sent him a challenge to a public trial of strength and skill. It 
was accepted, as a matter of course, and the meeting took place 
with all the customary prairie formalities ; but rarely has a 
" champion" been more astonished than was Daniel JS'eedham. 
It was not so much that he was thrown twice in quick succes- 
sion, but that the thing was done for him with so much appar- 
ent ease ; and his wrath rose hotly to the fighting point. 

" Lincoln," he shouted, " you've thrown me twice, but you 
can't whip me." 

" Xeedham," said Abe, " are you satisfied I can throw you ? 
Well, if you ain't, and I've got to satisfy you by thrashing 
you, I'll do that too, for your own good." 

The crowd laughed ; but the champion gave the matter a 
sober second thought, and concluded that his own good did 
not require a mauling from that man. He was entirely satis- 
fied already. 



A STEP UPWABD. 73 



CHAPTER XL 

A STEP rPWAKD. 

Stranded in New Salem— First Public Employment— Miller, Clerk, and 
Peace-keeper— A Wrestling Match— 1831. 

The mill-dam across the Sangamon Eiver, upon the perilous 
edge of which Mr. Offutt's tlatboat stuck, to be rescued by 
Abraham Lincoln, is still in existence ; but the little hamlet of 
New Salem has long since disappeared. The hand of time re- 
quires but little human aid in the destruction of a score or two 
of houses built of logs or of pine boards, the best of them at 
a cost of less than a hundred dollars. 

New Salem, however, was something of a business place in 
the summer of the year 1831. The mill was a great help to 
it, and it was separated by twenty miles of prairie road from 
the crushing rivalry of Springfield. That city already con- 
tained at least a thousand inhabitants, and no neighboring set- 
tlement could hope to compete with it successfully. 

The whole population of the prairie country was in a condi- 
tion of continual drift and change, yet hardly any man could 
offer a good reason for his restlessness. Whole families floated 
hither and thither, they knew not why and scarcely how, 
drawing friends and connections after them. 

A solitary, loose-footed laliorer, without an ounce of prop- 
erty beyond the shabby clothes he stood in, was a fragment of 
human driftwood which might be cast ashore almost any- 
where by the aimless eddies of such a social state. 

Abraham Lincoln, hiring from job to job of uncertain work, 
was stranded at New Salem about midsummer of the year 1831. 
He had no definite business there, no settled occupation, no 



74 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

home, no special friends, altliougli there were some who knew 
him by name. His first employment grew out of the fact 
that he could write ; for that accomplishment was by no means 
general in New Salem. The " election" was held in August ; 
but when the polls were opened the reception of votes was 
cheeked by the sad fact that but one " clerk" was present to 
record them, while the inexorable law demanded two. Worse 
than that, a search of the known residents of New Salem failed 
to discover a second candidate duly educated for the perform- 
ance of his duties. There was the very tall stranger loitering 
around. It was not Hkely that he could use a pen, but they 
could ask him ; and one of the " judges of election" approached 
him with, 

" Mister, kin you write ?" 
" Well, yes, I reckon I can, a little." 
" Will you take a hand as clerk of 'lection to-day ?" 
" Well, yes, if you want me. I'll try it on. Do the best I 
can." 

It was a curious experience for the stranded stranger. He 
was performing the first act of his life as a public functionary, 
and the power and ofiice came to him because he was the one 
and only man who had the necessary education. 

Mr. Denton Offutt had it in his mind to start a country store 
at New Salem, and Abe was in some hope of emplo^nnent 
from him if the intention should be fulfilled : but it was not. 
Mr. Offutt's plans, like his flatboat enterprise, were a httle un- 
certain in their beginnings. Meantime, however, a job turned 
up in the piloting of a flatboat down the Sangamon Kiver in a 
flood. It was a task which called for nerve and skiU as well as 
strength, for there were places where the swollen current car- 
ried the boat across prairie, two or three miles away from 
the regular channel, and all knowledge of the latter was of no 
account. There was a whole family on board with their 
household goods, bound for Texas, and their tall pilot steered 
them safely down the freshet, as far as his contract called for. 



A STEP UPWARD. 75 

Then he left them in other hands and walked back to ISTew 
Salem, 

More loitering and waiting followed, vnth a process of get- 
ting acquainted with everybody, and at last Mr. Offutt's goods 
arrived. He added to them by purchasing the stock on hand 
of what would otherwise have been the rival estabhshment. 
He had kept liis liking for his flatboat hero, and Abe was en- 
gaged as clerk and salesman of the new concern. It was a rise 
in life for him ; one more round of the ladder he was climbing 
out of the miry bog in which he had been bora. 

Mr. Offutt was an enterprising man, and he now rented the 
mill itself from its owners, and put it under the especial 
charge of Abe, while a clerk named Green was assigned to 
duty at the store. Lincoln had tried his hand at many things, 
and now he was a miller, as if no point of life should be found 
at which he had not come into contact vdih the people he lived 
among. He mingled with them everywhere, being thoroughly 
one of them. He soon discovered that not even the woods of 
Indiana had developed a rougher, coarser, and in some respects 
a more vicious and degraded community. Fighting, drinking, 
gambling, riotous dissipation of all the ruder varieties, were 
the order of the day, and of almost every day. Abe's physical 
prowess once more stood him in good stead. It enabled him 
in time to set up as a sort of heavy-handed keeper of the 
peace : but this could not be, of course, until he had been tested 
against the local bully. 

The boasts of his friends, headed by Mr. Offutt, shortly 
brought that matter aliout. The latter freely declared that 
Abe could outran, throw, or whip any man in Sangamon 
County, and that he knew more than any other man alive, and 
would be President of the United States some day. He had 
reasons of his own for the faith that was hi him ; but over at 
Clary's Grove there was another man who imagined a large 
share at least of all that praise his o^vn peculiar due. He too 
had enthusiastic admirers ready to do his boasting for him. 



76 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The " Clary's Grove Boys" were a set of unmitigated ruffians, 
and Jack Armstrong was tlieir best man. From all accounts 
it is liard to guess wlio or what could have been their worst, 
and all peaceable people stood in dread of them. 

There came one day a kind of boasting match between 
Offutt and Bill Clary, of Clary's Grove, and it could have but 
one result. Abe Lincoln and Jack Armstrong were pitted 
against each other for a wrestle, in spite of all the strong ob- 
jections made by the former. That was not the sort of com- 
petition or success that Mr. Offutt's foreman was studying for, 
and he did his best to avoid it ; but it was too late to escape, 
for the match had been definitely made. 

The confidence of the Clary's Grove Boys in their cham- 
pion was unbounded, and so was that of the public generally, 
so that the tide of betting and talk ran all in favor of Jack Arm- 
strong, until the two antagonists were fairly clinched in the 
ring. 

The struggle which followed was no common one, for the 
men were well matched, and, so long as the rules of fair 
wrestling were observed, neither succeeded in gaining any ad- 
vantage. At last, both out of breath, they separated and stood 
looking at each other. 

" Jack," said Lincoln, " let's quit. You can't throw me and 
I can't throw you." 

The champion had been deeply stung by his unexpected 
failure, and now a chorus of biting remarks arose among his 
own friends and followers. He made no verbal reply, but 
rushed right in again in the hope of suddenly securing a 
" foul hold " and an unfair advantage. But he had already 
tried too far even the steady temper of his antagonist : in an- 
other instant, caught by the throat in a pair of iron hands, he 
was held out at arm's length, and shaken as if he had been a 
child. 

Then the cry was, " A fight ! A fight !" and the supporters of 
Mr. Offutt were by no means equal, in either numbers or bru- 



A STEP UPWARD. 77 

talitj, to those of Bill Clary. The latter claimed the stakes, and 
they would perhaps have been surrendered to him but for 
the aroused condition of Abe Lincoln's temper. He had an 
abundance of it if any one would take the trouble to stir it 
up, and it refused always to go down rapidly. He now de- 
clared himself ready and willing to fight Armstrong or any of 
his fellows. The consequences might have been serious but 
for the arrival of Mr. Kutledge, the owner of the mill and the 
great man of New Salem. The noisy mob had all a mob's 
respect for well-clad wealth. The mill-owner was able to 
restore the broken peace, and there was no fighting done. 

The episode was full of important consequences to Abraham 
Lincoln. His courage and prowess had been thoroughly 
tested and had made a deep impression upon the minds of his 
rough neighbors. He was in no danger of further challenges 
from any of them, and Jack Armstrong avowed liimself the 
fast friend of the man who had given him so good a shaking. 
Tlie further results were only a question of time, for the wrest- 
hng match which was not won by either of the contestants 
gained for Abe Lincoln a strong and devoted, if somewhat tur- 
bulent, constituency. Every member of the Clary's Grove 
gang had a vote, and with it a strong admiration for a man who 
could not only read and Avrite, but could hold a bully at arm's 
length. The story of the " match" went far and wide, and its 
hero was thenceforth a man of note and influence in that com- 
munity. 

Thenceforward, moreover, the immediate neighborhood had 
a recognized and respected peacemaker, and became a more 
pleasant place of residence for men of quiet tastes. Not to 
such a degree, however, that an utter stranger would be wise 
in loitering here and there too much unless he were prepared 
to look out for his personal safety somewhat as Lincoln had 
done. 

The new foreman of Offutt's mill found that his duties left 
him with time on his hands, and he did not propose to waste it. 



78 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

He could already read and write and " cipher." He could 
make speeches. He could even compose essays and get them 
printed. He knew that he had a fair capacity for the use of 
words. But he had latterly made an important discovery. It 
was that human language, his own in particular, had its laws, 
and these had been ferreted out and formulated by men of 
learning, and that no man could be called " educated " while 
ignorant of them. He went at once to Mr. Graham, the school- 
master of ]S'ew Salem, and asked him questions about grammar. 

" I have a notion to study it." 

" If you ever expect to go before the public in any capacity, 
I think it's the best thing you can do." 

" If I had a grammar I'd begin on it right away." 

The schoolmaster knew of one that could be had of a man 
named Yaner, only six miles away, and the rare book was pur- 
chased and brought back to town with aU the speed in the long 
limbs of its new owner. Whether or not it would better fit 
him to come before such a public as that of Clary's Grove, or 
even New Salem, Abe gave all his spare time to the mastery 
of it. 

There were other books now within reach, and these also 
were doggedly conquered, one by one. The dayhght was 
burned over them, while the student lay at full length on his 
counter in the store, waiting for customers, or stretched upon 
the grass outside in dull seasons, or sitting on a sack of corn, 
" between grists," at the mill. When evening came, he would 
go over to the cooper-shop and read there, burning shaving 
after shaving, one kindled from another, in place of unattain- 
able candles. These were not only scarce but costly, and Abe's 
wages permitted him no vain extravagances. He was fighting 
his upward way, inch by inch, with iron resolution. Even the 
Kew Salem community could plainly discern how fast his 
inner man was growing. They were aU but proud of him, 
and the fame of his knowledge spread far and wide, keeping 
even pace with his reputation for story-telling and for shaking 



A STEP UPWARD. 79 

Jack Armstrong, He could not fail to be popular among 
those who knew him well, and every fresh arrival from the 
outside world was sm-e to be seized npon and made a friend of. 
Yes, and then subjected to a pumping process, which drew 
from him, for Abe's benefit, whatever he might know. There 
is hardly a human being from whom such an inquirer could 
not learn something, and the power to so gather wisdom grows 
continually -^nth its use. 

Lincohrs first political speech in Illinois had dealt ^vith the 
problem of the future navigation of the Sangamon Eiver, and 
now, early in the spring of 1S32, a company of gentlemen 
went so far, in attempting a practical solution, as to charter a 
small steamboat named the "Talisman," and decide to send 
her up the stream as high as she could go. Quite a number of 
questions could be answered by the results of such an experi- 
ment : but it was not tried in fiood-time or they might have 
found and reported much more water in the chamiel. They 
were wise enough to secure Abe Lincoln's services as pilot, 
"from lieardstown, up aud back," He steered the boat in 
safety around the nuuiy crooks and windings, avoiding all snags 
and bars and similar perils, until she found her further progress 
barred by the New Salem milUlam. If she could not pass 
that barrier the Sangamon could not be truthfully set down on 
any map as a navigable stream. 

There was but one way of overcoming the diflBculty, and 
enough of the dam was promptly torn away to permit the 
steamboat to pass. On she went. But there were perils before 
her even then ; for she reached the shallow water above, only 
to find that it was hourly getting shallower, and that the river 
was ra})i(lly falling. Tht- L-xperiment had been faithfully tried. 
The inquirers knew just how far they could take just such a 
craft up the Sangamon at somewhat low water. 

The problem now remaining was how to get her down the 
river again, and it seemed a serious one ; but their pilot man- 
aged it for them. He is said to have been paid forty dollars 



80 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

for that part of his achievement ; but he economically walked 
all the way home from Beardstown to New Salem. 

Feat after feat of self-denial, skill, strength, ingenuity, and 
perseverance were telling fast upon the character and educa- 
tion of Mr. Offutt's brawny " clerk." It was especially weU for 
him, indeed, that he should learn to be a good pilot in danger- 
ous and " falling" waters. 



THE BL ACER AWE WAR. 81 



CHAPTEE XII. 

THE BLACKHAWK WAK, 



Lincoln a Volunteer— Army Discipline— Captain Lincoln under Punish- 
ment—Going to a New Scbool— Regulars and Volunteers — 1832, a.d. 

One reason why !Mr. Offiitt could spare his foreman for a 
steamboat trip up and down the Sangamon was that his vai-ious 
mercantile and milling enterprises were coming to a disastrous 
end. One after another he was compelled to give them up. 
Hardly was the " Talisman" safe in the lower river, before her 
pilot found his occupation as a clerk gone from him ; his em- 
ployer had departed, no man knew whither, and the store was 
closed. 

The mill returned to the management of its o^vners, and Abe 
Lincohi was once more utterly adrift. 

Those, however, were stirring times in Illinois, for the great 
war-chief of the Sacs, tlie terriljle Blackhawk, was over the 
northwestern border with the full strength of his tribe. He was 
said, also, to have formed a great confederacy, after the man- 
ner of King Philip, Pontiac, and Tecumseh, of the Winneba- 
goes. Foxes, Sioux, Kickapoos, and other tribes. This was true 
enough; but the whites did not as yet know how completely 
the savage league had fallen to pieces. 

The Governor of Illinois was calling loudly for volunteers 
to act with the regular forces of the United States in checking 
the raid of the red men. 

There had been a good deal of desultory border warfare dur- 
ing the pre'S'ious year, and some Illinois troops had taken part in 
it. It had been of a somewhat bloody nature at several poiuts, 
but the Indians had finally retreated, and had promised, at the 



82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

end of the campaign, to behave themselves more peaceably 
in future. Their promises were not made to be kept any- 
longer than until presents could be received and spring should 
come again. They had broken them now, and it was necessary 
that they should have a sharp lesson administered to them. 

The military experience of Abraham Lincoln had l)een be- 
gun for him in the fall of 1831, when, at a militia-muster at 
Clary's Grove, the "boys" had chosen him captain of the com- 
pany. He was not present when elected, but accepted the 
honor thriist upon him, made a speech of thanks, and served 
during the muster. He afterwards said that if he had not 
been down the river in Offutt's liatboat in the sj^ring of 1831, 
he should have surely then enlisted among the volunteers then 
called out, and gone to the frontier instead of into the store and 
mill. 

Now there was something on hand more serious than a mere 
" muster," for nearly the same men were organizing a company 
for active service. The choice of a captain became a question of 
importance. There were but two candidates, Lincoln and a man 
named Kirkpatrick, owner of the sawmill at which the logs had 
been made into planks for Mr. Offutt's flatboat. There was an 
old grudge between them, beginning in that connection, and the 
rivahy ran high until the votes were counted, when it was found 
that Lincoln had beaten his competitor " out of sight." It was 
no wonder, for the men who had voted were mostly the same 
who had stood around the ring and seen him shake Jack Arm- 
strong, and they had clear notions of the quahties required by 
a man whose duty it would be to keep order in their camp. 
He must have the necessary muscles and fighting pluck to 
whip any rough in his company, or he was no captain for them. 
No doubt it was a good escape for Mr. Kirkpatrick, the Clary's 
Grove boys themselves being judges. 

Neither the young captain nor his mutinous, disorderly re- 
cruits had the slightest prophetic idea how needful it was that 
Abraham Lincoln should be taught by practical experience the 



THE BLACEHAWK WAR. 83 

difficulties in the way of turning raw volunteers into soldiers. 
He had great lessons to learn in the few short weeks of the 
Blackhawk "War. 

The volunteers from that part of the State gathered at 
Beard stown and Eushville to be organized into regiments. 
Captain Lincoln's company was made part of a regiment com- 
manded by Colonel Samuel Thompson. On the 2Tth of April 
the whole force marched for the Black River country, where 
Blackhawk and his warriors lay, going by way of Oquaka, on 
the Mississippi. 

There had been no time for the drill or discipline of that 
array of free frontiersmen, and no company among them all 
stood in greater need of both than did the one which had mus- 
tered at Clary's Grove. 

What could men know of the first duty of a soldier, when 
in all their lives they had never been taught to obey anjiihing? 
Even their captain required immediate instruction. While 
encamped at Henderson Eiver — over which the soldiers had 
built a bridge, so rude that many horses were lost in trying to 
get a foothold upon it, down the steep bank — an order was 
issued by Gen. Whiteside, in command of the forces, forbid- 
ding the discharge of firearms within fifty paces of the camp 
limits. 

A military order was nothing but the word of one man, and 
the prohibition must mean "fifty paces, more or less," thought 
Captain Lincoln, and so he discharged his pistol recklessly, 
within a dozen steps of the given line. It was a bad mistake, 
since the forty paces he had failed to walk measured the entire 
question of army discipline and of mihtary success or failure, 
and it was eminently needful that he, of all men, should be 
made to understand that vital matter. 

His sword was taken from liim, and he was put under arrest 
for an entire day; the very lightness of the punishment show- 
ing how much in need of further instruction were the officers 
and men of General Whiteside's volunteer army. 



84 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: 

1^0 more was said about the affair after that, and Captain 
Lincoln returned to duty. He had in this case suffered some- 
what for a fault of his own; but he was shortly to incur a more 
severe disgrace for a sin of which he was innocent. So he 
was to learn how easily any commander may be ruined by un- 
faithful subordinates. 

From Henderson River the army marched to Yellow Banks, 
on the Mississippi, where they were visited by a band of 
Cherokees from the Iowa shore, and were treated to a war- 
dance. Thence a sharp push forward for a few days brought 
them to the mouth of Rock River and near the field of their 
expected campaign. From that place they were to advance up 
the river about fifty miles to Prophetstown, and await the arri- 
val of the United States regular troops who were to act with 
them. But when the order to " fall in" reached the company 
commanded by Captain Lincoln, it could not be complied with. 

Aided by a scapegrace from another company, and without 
the knowledge of their strictly temperate commander, the men 
had supphed themselves with hquor stolen from the officers' 
quarters, and most of them were still under the effects of it. 
It was all in vain for Captain Lincoln and his orderly sergeant 
to urge the wretched drunkards to form company. Even if 
they consented to try, they could not keep their ranks, and too 
many of them only mocked at all the orders given them. 

The army moved that day without the disgraced, besotted 
squad, and it was ten o'clock before Captain Lincoln could 
march at all. Even then he was compelled to halt by the way, 
that his mutinous ruffians might sleep off the vile stupor they 
had brought upon themselves. He pushed them onward after 
that, and rejoined the main body in the night, only to find 
himself once more put under arrest and compelled to wear a 
wooden sword for two whole days. These were not precisely 
the military honors he had thirsted for, but he was not likely 
to forget either their causes or any of the lessons which came 
with them. 



TEE BLACEEAWK WAR. 85 

Instead of waiting at Prophetstown for the regular troops to 
arrive, General Whiteside determined to push on towards 
Dixon, forty miles further. He left his baggage-train by the 
way, in his blind haste to meet an enemy. The men caught 
the infection of his inexperienced recklessness and threw away 
their rations, so that their forced march brought them to Dixon 
better prepared for a famine than a fight. They were joined 
there by two battalions of mounted men as rash as themselves, 
and General Whiteside pelded to the clamor of these unwise 
horsemen that they should at once be sent forwai'd in search 
of Blackhawk and his warriors. 

Alas for them! Their search was only too successful. 
They found an ambuscade of seven hundred chosen braves, 
commanded by the chief in person. In a few hours more all 
that were left of the two battalions came straggling back to 
Dixon with the bloody story of " Stillmau's defeat,'' The 
next day the main body of the whites moved forward to the 
ghastly scene of the disaster ; but they were destitute of pro- 
visions, the men were hungry and mutinous, and the only thing 
that army was fit to do was to march back and wait for sup- 
plies and for better leaders. 

There was much fatigue and suffering in all this marching 
and counter-marching, and Captain Lincoln shai'ed it all with 
his men. Their personal attacliment to him had increased 
daily, for they had found but one man in the whole army who 
could match him as a wrestler. Even then there was a dispute 
as to whether Lincoln was fairly thrown. His men would not 
admit the fact, even after he himself frankly acknowledged it. 

He had need of all his popularity one day. An old Indian 
came rashly into camp, trusting to the protection of a written 
passport signed by General Cass, and professing to be a friend 
of the white men. The soldiery was smarting under defeats 
and privations, and they refused to believe that a red man 
could be other than a sort of human wild beast, whose life was 
forfeit whenever and wherever he mi<rht be found. 



86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: 

The poor old savage liad come in alone, hungry, helpless, in 
search of food, and now an angry mob was rushing upon him, 
seeking to murder him. His last moment seemed to have 
arrived, when a tall man in the uniform of a captain dashed 
through the crowd and stood erect in front of him. 

" Men ! this must not be done ! He must not be shot and 
killed by us." 

His very body seemed to be growing, as the righteous anger 
swelled hotly within him. But one of the armed mob, after 
a moment of amazed silence, found voice to whine, 

" But, Captain, that there Indian is a damned spy." 

There were swarms of brutal and thoughtless men around 
ready to catch the word, and for a few moments Lincoln's own 
life was worth but Uttle more than that of the old red man 
who was cowering behind him. He spoke again, passionately, 
powerfully, waving them back with his long arms, and they 
were beginning to grow calmer and hear reason, when another 
whine arose : 

" This is cowardly on your part, Lincoln." 

The Captain's temper was already at white heat, but it 
blazed yet higher as he fiercely responded : 

" If any man thinks I am a coward, let Mm test it." 

There was stiU another despicable snarl : 

" Well, Lincoln, you're a larger and heavier man than any 
of us." 

" You can guard against that. Choose your own weapons." 

Every line of his dark face told them he was ready, and not 
a coward of them all stepped out to apply the test. The life 
of the vagrant Indian was saved, and the young captain who 
protected him had won the brightest laurel gathered by any 
hero of the Blackhawk War, although he was never actually 
under fire in any of its recorded battles. 

All this shows how miserable was the discipline and soldier- 
ship of the Illinois volunteers of all grades. But they were not 
without cause for their constant complaints and insubordination. 



TEE BLACKHAWE WAR. 87 

The regular-army officers despised tlie volunteers then, as 
thev did for a while at a later day and on a larger scale ; and 
their prejudices led them to discriminate in the issue of rations 
and pay, and in assignments to duty, whenever possible, in 
favor of United States troops. An improper order came 
to Captain Lincoln and he obeyed it, but went immediately 
afterwards to protest in person against the injustice done his 
men and to their volunteer comrades. He said to the official 
concerned, in plain words : 

" Su-, you forget that we are not under the rules and regula- 
tions of the War Department at Washington ; are only volun- 
teers under the orders and regulations of HUnois. Keep in 
your o%vn sphere and there will be no difficulty ; but resistance 
will hereafter be made to your imjust orders. And further, my 
men must be equal in all particulars, in rations, arms, camps, 
etc., to the regular army." 

He carried his point, and there was an immediate improve- 
ment in the management of affairs. But he had done a very 
extraordinary tlung. Long years afterwards it was to become 
a matter of national importance that he should thoroughly un- 
derstand the nature and extent of the perpetual jealousy be- 
tween the Regular Army and the Volunteers ; and now he had 
mastered the entire subject once for all, and had learned pre- 
cisely how the resulting difficulties were to be overcome. 

Here was a change indeed. The inner man of the bare- 
footed Indiana plowboy who had been snubbed by John 
Brecldnridge for daring to speak to him had already gro^^^l 
amazingly. He had reached the mental and moral stature of a 
hero, who could control a mob of ruffians one day, and force 
justice from the astonished insolence of epauleted authority 
another. 

Every man, moreover, who found himself better fed and 
cared for in consequence of that bold protest was likely to re- 
turn to the banks of the Sangamon with a high opmion and a 
good report to make to his neighbors of Abraham Lincoln. 



88 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The discontent of the volunteers was just ; but it rendered 
them of little further use as an army. At their own request, 
they were marched from Dixon to Ottawa, Elinois, by way of 
Pawpaw Grove, and there disbanded on the 28th of May. The 
best material for soldiers in the whole world had been rendered 
worthless in four weeks by incompetent commanders and an 
inefficient commissariat, at a heavy expense to the public ; but 
a great deal had been accomphshed, nevertheless, in the need- 
ful instruction given to one young captain. 

The Governor of the State called for two thousand men to 
take the places of the disbanded regiments, and a large number 
of the discharged men re-enlisted at once. Officers became 
privates rather than go home in such an inglorious fashion. 
General Whiteside himself entered the ranks as a common sol- 
dier, and so, among the rest, did Caj>tain Lincoln, as a member 
of the " Independent Spy Company." 

By the middle of June the new forces were ready, and they 
again marched up the banks of Rock River. In the mean 
time Blackhawk and his warriors overran the country they 
had come to conquer and intended to keep. 

The troops were fairly well-handled now, and the campaign 
which followed was a vigorous one, resulting in the utter de- 
feat and almost the destruction of the savage invaders. But the 
work of the Independent Sj^y Company included little fight- 
ing. There was a great deal of hard work done by them in- 
deed. There was much perilous scouting, with fast traveling 
as messengers, on horseback and on foot, and their exposure 
to danger was of a sort that they did not need to be ashamed 
of. The company was finally disbanded, and the men 
were discharged at White Water, Wisconsin, just as the war 
was drawing to a close. Lincoln prepared to set out for 
home, in company with a friend and comrade named George 
W. Harrison. Their horses were stolen from them the night 
before their intended start, and they were compelled to reach 
Peoria, Illinois, on foot, with some help of borrowed rides 



THE BLACEEAWK WAB. 89 

on the horses of other soldiers who were going in the same 
direction. 

Here they bought a canoe and paddled down the Illinois 
River until, just below Pekin, they overtook a timber-raft. It 
was easy to make friends with the raftsmen, in whose com- 
pany they floated lazily down stream as far as the town of 
Havana. 

The rest of the homeward way was a hot and tedious tramp 
across country. It was ended in due time, and the man who 
went out as a captain and came home as a private had returned 
to discover, through a slow and painful progress, what and 
how much his army career had done for him. 



90 ABEAEAM LINCOLN: 



CHAPTEE Xm. 



Lincoln a Candidate — Stumping the District — Defeat — The Credit System 
— Lincoln a Merchant.' 

The politics of the United States were in a noteworthy con- 
dition in the year 1832. There were parties, and party-spirit 
ran high ; but party organization, such as now controls the 
country, did not then exist. In the "West generally, and in Il- 
linois in particular, the complicated machinery which was al- 
ready in process of foiTnation among the older States was 
wholly unknown. Instead of it there was a species of political 
chaos, although the State was nominally Democratic in its ma- 
jorities, and for many years continued to be so. The old Fed- 
eral party was dead and buried, the Whig party was yet un- 
formed, and men wandered hither and thither among the great 
questions of the day, vainly striving to discover what these 
were and whither the country was drifting. 

In the absence of nominating conventions large or small, 
it was the custom for candidates for office to nominate them- 
selves, if they could persuade a few friends to urge them to do 
so. One consequence of this was that, for almost any elective 
honor, high or low, there were frequently as many men in the 
field as candidates as could combine their ambition with the 
energy and means to make the required canvass. For the lat- 
ter some kind of personal popularity was of much more im- 
portance than any other qualification. 

The volunteers who went from Sangamon County to the 
Blackhawk War returned to then* homes in squads or singly, 
the greater number bringing little with them besides their very 



POLITICS. 91 

moderate allowances of military gloiy. Abe Lincoln succeeded 
in adding to his own share of this, and it was as large as any- 
body's, an intense but somewhat local popularity. He great- 
ly increased his fame as an orator, also, by a speech he made 
in the New Salem debating club shortly after his return. 
It was the first regular "speech" he had dehvered in that 
community, and his neighbors were ignorant of his powers 
until that hour. When he arose to begin, the audience ex- 
pected no more than a well-told story and a good joke or so, 
and prepared itself accordingly for an appreciative laugh. 

Abe's hands were in his pockets at the first, and his words 
came to him slowly ; but he was not there for the purpose of 
making fun. To the astonishment of his hearers, he seriously 
took hold of the subject before them, wanned with it as he 
went on, argued, reasoned, declaimed, with a force and an 
awkward eloquence which took them all by storm. 

Mr. James Rutledge, the owner of the mill, was president 
of the club, and he for some reason felt a deep interest in the 
coming election for members of the State Legislature. He 
was very strongly impressed by that speech, and a few days 
afterwards he urged the young orator to offer himseK as a can- 
didate. 

Lincoln at first refused, on the ground that he was little 
known in the greater part of the county, which was a large 
one, and that he should surely be defeated. 

"Perhaps not," said Mr. Eutledge. "They'll know you 
better after you've stumped the county. Anyhow, it'll do 
you good to try." 

Other friends added their solicitations, and Lincoln's modesty 
gave way under the pressure. 

It seemed a tremendous undertaking for a mere boy who the 
year before had drifted into New Salem as a farm-hand and flat- 
boatman. That it was not altogether absurd offers a window 
through which a remarkably good view can be obtained of the 
then social and political condition of things in Illinois. 



92 ' ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The general canvass that fall was hot and spirited, for it was 
the year of General Jackson's election to the Presidency. 
Lincoln had from boyhood admired " Old Hickory." He was 
still nominally a " Jackson man," although the principles he 
advocated in his speeches were almost identical with those 
upon which the "Whig party was afterwards built up. 

The politics of the State of Illinois, however, were agitated 
by other questions besides those uj)on which the nation as a 
whole was divided. Candidates for the Legislature, even more 
than for other public positions, were required to meet their 
constituents upon numerous topics of strictly local importance. 
The State was fast going crazy upon the subject of " internal 
improvement." Roads of all kinds, and navigable rivers of 
designated sizes and patterns, were wanted in all directions. 
There was a vague idea abroad, daily obtaining a strong hold 
upon the minds of men, that all these could be provided by a 
majority vote of the State Legislature in the enacting of a 
"law." 

Lincoln believed that a great deal could be done for the 
Sangamon River, and he was ready to prove it upon stump 
after stump. He was also earnestly in favor of laws j)roviding 
for popular education. An address which he issued to his con- 
stituents two years later dealt freely with this and other topics, 
and was a very creditable document for a youth of twenty-five 
with barely a year of aggregated schooling to look back upon. 
He now issued no address, but he had had some training for 
the task set before him, and he took hold of it vigorously. 

A canvass of Sangamon County was not in those days a 
matter for a man of weak body or sensitive nerves to think of 
lightly. It meant a going from place to place wherever a 
crowd could be gathered, and a readiness to face boldly not 
only any assembly of proposed hearers, but also such other 
assemblages as might propose to interfere with both speaking 
and hearing. There were fair copies of Clary's Grove and its 
gang of roughs in almost every precinct, and all this element 



POLITICS. 93 

was sure to make itself heard and felt in election-time. At 
one place, while Lincoln was speaking, a friend of his became 
engaged in a fight and was getting the worst of it. So was the 
speech, by reason of the divided interest and attention of the 
crowd. The orator left the " stump" to interfere, but one of 
the men in his way refused to let him pass. There could be 
no hesitation on the part of the " candidate." The impeding 
person was promptly seized by the nape of the neck and the 
seat of his trowsers, was pitched away many feet into the grass, 
tlie friend in trouble was rescued, and then the interrupted 
speech was resumed under better auspices. 

There were other candidates traversing Sangamon County 
upon the selfsame errand ; men who were better known and 
whose political strength had been previously developed. It 
was no disgrace to Lincoln that he failed of an election by four 
hundred and seventy votes. Xew Salem precinct stood by 
him manfully. There were two huntked and eighty votes 
cast there, and he got all but three of them. The shaking of 
Jack Armstrong, the Blackhawk War, with all the other 
brilliant exploits of Mr. Offutt's clerk, had bound his neighbors 
to him for Hfe and death. K there had been voters enough in 
New Salem, he could have been elected to an}i;hing. 

Now that he was beaten at the polls — for his good — it be- 
came necessary for Lincoln to look around him for some other 
occupation than that of making laws for the State. 

He was fond of plaWng with the children of liis friends, and 
he was always ready to chop wood or do any other kindly act 
for the utterly poor around New Salem. His hand was out to 
every man. But all this would not buy clothes or law-books, 
or pay for board. 

He was li%nng at the time with an intimate friend named 
Hemdon, one of two brothers who kept a store in the village. 
Besides theirs, another was carried on by a man named Rad- 
ford, and still another, a smaller one, by Mr. Eutledge, the 
owner of the mill. 



94 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The course of these three estahlishments at this time was 
somewhat remarkable. 

" Jim" Herndon became dissatisfied and sold his interest to 
a loose character named Berry. "Eow" Herndon quarreled 
with his new partner in six weeks, and sold his share to Abe 
Lincoln. The Clary's Grove roughs had a grudge against 
Eadf ord, and one night they came to town and took it out by 
smashing his windows. They scared him so badly that he sold 
the wreck of liis estabhshment at once to Bill Green on credit 
for four hundred dollars. The firm of Lincoln & Berry the 
next day bought out Bill Green, also " on time," giving him 
their note of hand for two hundred and fifty dollars profit on 
his sudden bargain. Then Mr. Kutledge sold Lincoln & Berry 
his own httle grocery, and the new concern united the three 
" stores" in one, having given little for them all besides their 
own "notes of hand." Their rivals in business, destined to 
survive them, were the firm of Hill & McNeil. 

Almost all business was done upon the credit system in those 
days. It continued so to be until a long succession of financial 
disasters had taught men the value of hard cash and short set- 
tlements. 

Lincoln was now a merchant ; beginning his career under a 
load of debt, and with the yet heavier burden of an idle, dis- 
solute, extravagant, uttterly worthless partner. 

It required no longer time than the v\^inter months of 1832- 
1833 to determine the fate of such an undertaking, and the 
firm of Lincoln & Berry sold out in their turn, and " on time," 
to a couple of brothers named Trent. 

The store was Kfted from Lincohi's shoulders, if the debts 
were not. These could not begin to press him for some months 
to come, and he could turn his attention, meantime, to some 
other means of earning a livehhood. He was still boarding 
with " Row" Herndon, and he was working hard at all the law- 
books he could lay his hands on. He gave to these every hour 
he could spare for them. But something else had now to be 
done if he would live to study. 



POLITICS. 95 

Once more the pathway to success seemed for a moment to 
be barred before liim, and once more an altogether unlooked- 
for opening appeared, 

Mr. Calhoun, surveyor of Sangamon County, was overrun 
with business, and needed an assistant. Immigrants and land- 
buyers were pouring into the prairie country in a constantly 
increasing stream. It was necessary that their demands should 
be met, and that the surveying called for should be honestly 
and faithfully done. The temptations to carelessness and cor- 
ruption were many. Mr. Calhoun knew Abe Lincoln and 
trusted him thoroughly. He also knew him to be ignorant of 
surveying, but he went to see him about it. He took with him 
a book of instruction in the art, and told Abe that as soon as 
he should be ready to go to work he should have as much as 
he could do. 

That was enough for the man of iron perseverance. He 
took tlic book on surveying and went out into the country to 
board with Minter Graham, the same schoolmaster with whom 
he had consulted about English grammar. In six weeks he 
was ready to report to Mr. Calhoun for service. They had 
been weeks of precisely such unflinching mental toil as he had 
for so long a time trained himself to endure. 

Thenceforward there was no danger but what he could pay 
his board-bills. His work was found to stand all tests of ac- 
curacy, and Mr. Calhoun kept his word about giving him 
enough of it. In all the intervals of that employment he strug- 
gled on with his law-books. He even walked all the way to 
Springfield and back to borrow of a friend there a volume he 
could not afford to buy. 

Once more a public employment came to him, though a mar- 
velously small one, for on the Tth of May, 1833, he was ap- 
pointed postmaster of New Salem. There is no record of 
where he kept that " post-office," but there is a legend that he 
kept it in his hat. The people of New Salem had few corres- 
pondents, and the mail did not arrive every day. Indeed, one 



96 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of tlie special and important duties of the postmaster was to 
read and even to write letters for those whose lack of educa- 
tion forbade their doing either for themselves. Here was a 
curious mixture of occupations, truly ; but there was hfe for 
the present and hope for the future. The prospect would 
not have been at all gloomy if it had not been for the store 
and the cloud of debts which hung over it. 

The Trent brothers kept the business going for a few months, 
and then they gave it up and ran away, never again to be heard 
of in 'New Salem. Berry also departed from the scene of his 
misbehavior. He did not live long afterwards. Even before 
he went away, the accumulated load of debt for all those rash 
purchases " on time" came drifting back upon the shoulders of 
the one honest and hard-working man whose name was signed 
to the notes of hand. 

Abraham Lincoln could not run away. Still less could he 
pay the notes. He was able to make arrangement for the fu- 
ture payment of such of them as were held by his friends, for 
every man of them trusted his honesty entirely and never 
dreamed of pressing him. In their eyes he was an ill-used 
man, and his misfortunes in business made them more his 
friends than ever. One only of the notes had drifted away 
through the hands of successive holders beyond all friendly 
control. It was the one for four hundred dollars given to l\Ir. 
Eadf ord for the wreck of his store and stock the night before 
the day on wliich Bill Green's good bargain had been taken off 
his hands. This piece of paper was now held by a Mr. Yan 
Bergen, and he sued upon it, and of course obtained an imme- 
diate judgment against Lincoln. An execution was issued, and 
the iron hand of the sheriff was held out for all the debtor's 
personal property. His few books could not be touched, under 
the exemption law, but his horse, saddle, bridle, surveyor's in- 
struments of all kinds, the tools of his new trade, were seized 
upon without pity. Their loss might take away his means of 
livelihood and break up his growing business, but it could not 



1^- 



POLITICS. 97 

reallj set him back one step beliind tlie point to whicli lie had 
so steadily worked his way. Among the many friends he had 
made was a well-to-do farmer named Short, and this man, un- 
solicited, joined Lincoln in giving to the shei-iff the needful 
bond that the goods should be delivered on the day of sale, so 
that their owner could use them meantime. 

Lincoln did not attend the sale of his property, but Mr. 
Short was there with another of his friends named Greene. 
Between them they bought back all that the sheriff had 
seized, at the sum of two hundred and forty-five dollars. They 
divided their outlay nearly equally between them, and at once 
turned over their purchases to the man they had come to help, 
waiting for repayment until he should be able to earn the 
money. 

The remainder of that summer was a busy time for the post- 
master, the deputy county surveyor, and the one law-student 
of New Salem. To all his other work was now added the con- 
tinual reference to him of small legal matters, such as the 
drawing up of deeds and other papers. He even "petti- 
fogged" small cases before justices of the peace, but for all 
these acts of neighborly kindness he never thought of charg- 
ing a fee. Nor was this all the duty forced upon him by the 
unbounded confidence men had acquired in his fairness and 
integrity. 

The one great sport of that region was horse-racing. There 
were many horses of many kinds, and there was a continual 
succession of " matches" between them, but the human beings 
were few indeed by whose decisions, as judges of the result, 
all contestants were willing to abide. Much against his will, 
therefore, Abe was frequently compelled to peld to the unani- 
mous popular demand, and sit in " the judges' stand " while 
the horses were running. He had plenty of disputes to settle, 
but it was of no use for any disappointed or quarrelsome jockey 
to appeal from or severely criticise a decision made by Abe 
Lincoln. Once uttered, it had all the force of law. 



98 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

In spite of his hard study and his lack of any bodily toil to 
maintain the hardness of his muscles, his strength seemed to 
increase rather than diminish. Harnessed by shoulder-straps 
to a box of stones weighing half a ton, he lifted it repeatedly 
and with ease. This and other feats of a similar nature enabled 
him to maintain his place as a keeper of the peace and a recog- 
nized disturber of all ruffianism. ]^o tight could be fought 
out in the old-time way if Lincoln were at hand to interfere 
with it. It was so easy for him to take an angry man in each 
hand and hold two foolish fellows wide apart, until they should 
agree with him to let the matter drop and make the quarrel up. 
As a rule, moreover, at least one of the two men was likely to 
think more highly than ever of the rough peacemaker. 



FIRST LOVE. 



CHAPTEK XIY. 

FIEST LOVE. 

A true Romance— Elected to the State Legislature — A new Suit— Free 
thinking. 

The honest and upright ambition of Abraham Lincoln to 
make a man of himself had needed no spurring. There were 
within him springs of life and thought as yet unopened and of 
whose existence he was hitherto ignorant. These were now to 
be discovered to him, and a new and strong incentive to exer- 
tion was to add its power to the other forces which were urg- 
ing him upward. 

The third child of Mr. James Rutledge, Lincoln's devoted 
friend and admirer, was a girl of high principle and uncom- 
mon beauty. In all the country around there was no maiden 
to be compared ^vith fair Ann Rutledge. Her mental accom- 
phshments were only such as could then be obtained in Illinois 
by the daughter of a country merchant of intelligence and 
property, but they were sufficient. She could not fail to have 
admirers ; and when, in the second year of Lincoln's New Salem 
life, he came to board for a while with her father, she was al- 
ready promised in marriage to his friend McNeil, a young and 
thriving trader and farmer of New Salem. There came to her 
soon afterwards a strange, romantic history. Her betrothed 
revealed to her the fact that his name was not McNeil but 
McNamar, and that he had so concealed his identity in coming 
West that he might build a fortune unknown to his family 
and then return to care for his father in his old age. He was 
now closing up his business, turning his property into money, 



100 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and would go to Kew York, perform Ms purpose there, and 
come back to wed the girl who had given him her heart. 

She heard and she believed him, and he went but he did not 
come again. He wrote to her of his father's sickness and 
death. Then other letters came, at longer and longer intervals, 
always promising to return and holding her to her engagement, 
until at last their coming ceased entirely. 

It was a cruel, a terrible thing to fall upon a girl of nine- 
teen, for she had loved him well until she had found him false. 
The one bitterer drop was added to her cup of trouble when 
she found that, during ah that time, she had been winning the 
heart of a man whose faith could not be broken and whose in- 
tegrity and manly worth all other men acknowledged. 

More and more frequent grew the visits of the young law- 
student as the prospect of Mcl^amar's return diminished, but 
with httle encouragement from Ann until the summer of 1834. 
Her father's farm was but a small distance from that of Lin- 
coln's friend Short, and Abe found many occasions for spend- 
ing whole days together at the house of the man who so timely 
aided him. 

Ann was as true as she was beautiful, and she at last was 
compelled to tell her urgent suitor frankly what bond it was 
that bade her not to love him. She refused, in her sensitive 
good faith, to see that she could be set free from her promise 
to MclSTamar without a formal spoken or written release. She 
could no longer love a man who had broken his word, had 
slighted her, had treated her with a neglect so heartless, but 
she was slow to admit her right to take another in his place. 
And yet she had already taken him, and Lincoln knew it, and 
he gave to her all the unmeasured strength of his first, whole- 
hearted love. 

It was a loyal and manly thing to do. N"o other thing of 
which he had yet shown himseK capable told half so much for 
the growth of his inner hfe or promised half so well. 

He had something to live for now. He had a hope more 



FIRST LOVE. 101 

bright and beautiful than any dream he had dreamed, whether 
among the forests of Indiana, the rivers and bayous of the 
South, or the wealth-promising prairies where he had chosen 
his home. He worked as he had never worked before, toihng at 
his law-books as he rode or walked about the country. On one 
hot march, from Springfield home, with a volume of Black- 
stone's Commentaries he had borrowed, he mastered forty pages 
of it before he reached ]^ew Salem. With him to " master" a 
book was to seal its contents, as to their spirit and meaning, and 
largely as to their letter, in his memory forever, ready for all 
subsequent uses. 

There was no need for any urgent friend to prompt his po- 
litical ambition now. He was thirsting for such honors as 
would mark him as a man fitted to court and win Ann Kut- 
ledge. He well knew she would be pleased to see him win 
them for her, even while she reluctantly adhered to her roman- 
tic scruple concerning her broken bond. 

Since the previous campaign the political world liad under- 
gone apparent changes, and the Whig party was taking form. 
Its principles were nearly those which Lincoln had already 
avowed, and he readily floated into it. Still, all party lines 
were as yet so loosely drawn that his Democratic personal 
friends were under no necessity of refusing him their votes, 
whatever they miglit do with other names upon "their tickets. 
He announced himself as a candidate for election to the State 
Legislature, issued a printed address to the people of the 
county, and made a thorough stumping tour from neighborhood 
to neighborhood. He spoke as he had never before spoken, 
and was triumphantly elected although there were other strong 
candidates in the field. 

In the summer of the year 1831 he had landed in Sangamon 
County, a penniless, friendless boy of twenty-two. Only three 
years later there were 1376 men in the same county ready to 
say by their votes that he was a suitable person to represent 
them at the State capital. 



102 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

He liad been growing fast in other ways than in the good- 
will of his fellow-citizens ; but he had not outgrown his hon- 
esty nor his debts. These had joined hands to keep him j)oor 
in purse, and a proper sense of personal dignity forbade him to 
go to the Capitol at Yandalia in the shabby clotliing which 
was good enough for his daily round of life and work in 'New 
Salem. Money would also be required for other immediate 
expenses, and there was nothing in his hands that he could 
honestly sell to obtain it. He was already deeply in debt to 
his best friends, and his salary as a legislator could not be col- 
lected in advance. He had resources, however, and they did 
not fail him. 

Among his older acquaintances was a man named Smoot, as 
dry a joker as himself, but better supplied with ready money. 
To him Lincoln went one day, in company with another friend, 
Hugh Armstrong. 

" Smoot, did you vote for me ?" 

" I did that very thing." 

" "Well, that makes you responsible. Tou must lend me the 
money to buy suitable clothing, for I want to make a decent 
appearance in the Legislature." 

" How much do you want ?" 

" About two hundred dollars, I reckon." 

The honor of Sangamon County, and of New Salem in par- 
ticular, was at stake, and the new representative received his 
two hundred dollars on the sj)ot. 

It is not difl&cult to guess whose eyes were among the first 
to discover how great a difference good clothing could make in 
the outer man of Ann Rutledge's tall lover. The new gar- 
ments and the body under them were but a shell, however, 
inclosing the man to whom she was really surrendering her 
heart. 

There were long weeks yet before Lincoln's new public 
duties were to begin, and not an hour of one of them could he 
afford to waste. He read as desperately as ever, and he was 



FIRST LOVE. 103 

also thinking deeply upon other subjects besides law. There 
was but little religion of any kind in and about New Salem, or 
through aU the prairie country, in those rude days. Such as 
there was would hardly stand any exhaustive analysis. Few 
men gave any especial care to matters of faith or doctrine. 
There were many more horse-races and wrestling-matches than 
Gospel gatherings. The exceptional preaching was of a nature 
httle calculated to impress a mind like that of Abraham Lin- 
coln. Moreover, there was a jarring of sects and creeds, here 
and there, as in other communities always, and out of this 
came vastly more of contention than Christianity. If what he 
saw around him were aU there was of rehgion, it required less 
effort to reject than to accept it ; but the searching mind of 
the young thinker compelled him to make some sort of personal 
inquiry. His first teachers were about as bad as could have 
been given him, and he was not yet prepared to penetrate the 
shallow reasoning of Volney and Tom Paine. He even tried 
to follow out their lines of thought in an elaborate manuscript, 
and when this was finished he read it to a little circle in the 
store of Mr. Samuel Hill. There were those present who 
thought well of it, but a son of Mr. Hill ex-jiressed his own 
opinion in the plain word " infamous," took the paper in his 
hand and thrust it into the fire. There was nearly enough of 
it for a small book, but it burned well and Lincoln very sen- 
sibly let it burn. 

He did not know how closely he was following in the foot- 
steps of the great majority of those who honestly seek for the 
Truth. Still less could he then foresee the day when he should 
himself kneel down and lead a whole nation in prayer and 
fasting and thanksgiving and confession of sin, and that in 
their darkest hour of trial he should rise before them to en- 
courage them to trust in the very God whose existence he was 
now in callow fashion persuading himself to deny. 

All true thinkers are necessarily " free thinkers" until they 
enter into some description of bonds to their own self-conceit 



104 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and surrender their freedom to that miserable taskmaster. 
Lincoln began as a free inquirer, and never fell in with the 
mob of bondmen, but went on learning more and more until 
the very end. That at such a time he exercised himseK so 
deeply on such a subject is an invaluable index to the formative 
processes of his inner life. 

The time at last arrived for his journey to the Capitol of the 
State, then at Yandaha, in the southern part of the long, huge 
area of Illinois. Thanks to Mr. Smoot's friendly loan, he was 
well prepared to go with proper dignity, and to make a pre- 
sentable appearance among his fellow-legislators. He had but 
a hundred miles or so to travel, but that short journey carried 
him on into a new sphere of life and action. 



IN THE LEGISLATTTRB. 105 



CHAPTEE XY. 



EST THE LEGISLATUKE. 



Practical Politics— Lessons in Public Finance — Blowing Bubbles — A great 
Darliness— 1834-36. 

Mr. Lincoln had now attained a position whicli was full of 
promise. Tlie power of binding men to liim by ties of strong 
personal attachment had been bom with him. The capacity 
for influencing and controlling them when assembled as citi- 
zens for the discussion of political questions had been devel- 
oped in him remarkably and almost without his knowledge. 
lie was now to study and acquire the art or trade of managing 
a drove of selfish politicians. The material for such a training 
was gathered for him in perfection at Yandalia. He found 
himself surrounded by narrow-minded, ignorant embodiments 
of party prejudice, local jealousy, self-seeking, and self-conceit. 
In such a mob he could not help becoming a man of some 
mark, but during the greater part of that first " session" of 
1834-1835 he neither sought nor attained especial prominence. 
He was as yet a student of politics, not ready to be an active 
worker and still less a leader. Of many things he knew as 
much as did the majority of his fellow-legislators, and of 
some things he knew a great deal more, but he was slow to tell 
them so. Few of them, at all events, could equal him in tell- 
ing a story with a keen point to it, and none sui'passed him in 
personal height or in the peculiar heartiness of manner which 
made him so speedily at home amid his new surroundings. 

At the beginning of his education as a political manager, he 
was also at the beginning of a long course of experimental in- 
struction as to what could and what could not safely be done 



106 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

with public credit. He was to be taught fundamental truths 
of finance concerning a State or a nation, that he might not, 
in after-days, come ignorantly and without experience to the 
discussion and arbitrary decision of precisely such questions, 
relating to a wider field than that of the very young and now 
half-crazy State of Illinois. 

Lincoln believed in a general system of public improvements, 
and so did almost everybody else ; but the common accord 
ceased at that point. Beyond it lay a tangled mass of problems 
as to methods of procuring money wherewith to improve, and 
right along with these came a chaos of discord and contention 
as to how and where it should be spent, and which of the out- 
reaching, grasping local interests should first be served. The 
State was out of debt and its credit stood well in the money 
markets. It could readily borrow whatever it might need. It 
had sovereign power to create banks, and, through these, an 
unlimited capacity for the issue of paper money. The whole 
population was gambling in town-lots, lands, and almost every 
other kind of property. 

Illinois was by no means alone in her gambling fever. A 
somewhat similar condition of affairs existed elsewhere, ]S"orth, 
South, East, and "West. 

As for the Legislature, not a soul in Yandalia knew the first 
principles of finance or political economy. There had been as 
yet no teaching given to the ]N'ew Salem member of a sort to 
open his eyes to the fragility of the bubbles he and his asso- 
ciates were about to inflate. All looked well, and nothing 
seemed requisite except the soapsuds of the State credit and the 
creative breath of the Legislature. 

The speculative mania did not rise to fever-heat during that 
first winter, but some very fine bubbles were blown. A State 
bank was chartered, with a " capital " of a million and a half. 
A broken-down money-mill of a bank in the wretched village 
of Shawneetown, in the southern part of the State, was set 
running again by a law which declared that it had three hun- 



IN THE LEGISLATURE. 107 

dred thousand dollars to run with. The State borrowed haKa 
million of actual dollars, and began to spend them on the 
western end of the Illinois and Mchigan Canal. Nothing was 
done for the Sangamon Pdver, and that and other incomplete 
streams were compelled to postpone for a while, at least, their 
ambition of becoming " navigable." Their friends, however, 
were firmly determined that the State credit and statute law 
should yet supply them wdth deep, well-made channels and an 
abundance of river-water, and thus everybody living along the 
banks of them would be rich at once. Mr. Lincoln was as- 
signed a place upon the Committee on Public Accounts and 
Expenditures. It was a good enough comer in which to study 
and acquire the information he stood most in need of, but he 
did not bring an ounce of practical preparation to the legisla- 
tive work set before him. lie toiled away at his tiisk, never- 
theless, and at the end of the session he returned to his New 
Salem home and his law-books. . 

The year 1835 seemed to open brightly enough, but its com- 
ing weeks and months were bringing Lincoln deeper and sad- 
der lessons than any which had yet been given him. He had 
already discovered in himself the germs of remarkable facul- 
ties. He had cultivated all industriously and with success, 
under the most adverse circumstances. There was in his grow- 
ing soul yet one more power of whose very existence he was 
but dimly conscious. It was the power of suffering ; the fa- 
culty of feeling inward pain more deeply, more keenly, than 
other men, and of keeping and carrying it longer. The related 
capacity for concealment did not come at the same time, but 
was to be developed later, when there should be greater need 
of it, that he might not fail in doing the duties whose needful 
performance should entail the suffering. 

It is not known precisely when Ann Rutledge told her sui- 
tor that her heart was his, but early in 1835 it was pubhcly 
known that they were solemnly betrothed. Even then the 
scrupulous maiden waited for the return of the absent McNa- 



108 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

mar, that she might be formally released from the obligation 
to him which he had so recklessly forfeited. Her friends ar- 
gued with her that she was carrying her scruples too far, and 
at last, as neither man nor letter came, she permitted it to be 
understood that she would marry Abraham Lincoln as soon as 
his legal studies should be completed. 

That was a glorious summer for him ; the brightest, sweet- 
est, hopefuUest he yet had known. It was also the fairest 
time he was ever to see ; for even now, as the golden days came 
and went, they brought an increasing shadow on their wings. 
It was a shadow that was not to pass away. Little by little 
came indications that the health of Ann Rutledge had suffered 
under the prolonged strain to which she had been subjected. 
Her sensitive nature had been strung to too high a tension, and 
the chords of her life were beginning to give way. 

There were those of her friends who said that she died of a 
broken heart, but the doctors called it " brain-fever." 

On the 25th of August, just before the summer died, she 
passed away from earth. But she never faded from the heart 
of Abraham Lincoln. She lived there in love and memory to 
the very last. In her early grave was buried the best hope he 
ever knew, and the shadow of that great darkness was never 
entirely lifted from him. 

A few days before Ann's death, a message from her brought 
her betrothed to her bedside, and they were left alone. I^o 
one ever knew what passed between them in the endless mo- 
ments of that last sad farewell; but Lincoln left the house 
with inexpressible agony written upon his face. He had been 
to that hour a man of marvelous poise and self-control, but the 
pain he now struggled with grew deeper and more deep, until, 
when they came and told him she was dead, his heart and will, 
and even his brain itself, gave way. He was utterly without 
help or the knowledge of possible help in this world or beyond 
it. He was frantic for the time, seeming even to lose the sense 
of his own identity, and all New Salem said that he was insane. 



IN THE LEGISLATURE. 109 

He piteously moaned and raved, " I can never be reconciled to 
have the snow, rains, and storms beat upon her grave !" 

The very earth her bodj slept in gathered to its grassy cover- 
ing somewhat of the unutterable tenderness the strong man felt 
for his first love. His best friends seemed to have lost their 
influence over him, and he resisted their kindly efforts at com- 
fort or control with all the gloomy peevishness and even the 
cunning of a madman. 

All but one ; for the same Bowlin Greene who had helped 
Short save his property for him at the sheriff's sale came now 
again to tlie rescue. He managed to entice the poor fellow to 
his own home a short distance from the village, there to keep 
watch and ward over him until the fury of his sorrow should 
wear away. There were well-grounded fears lest he might do 
himself some injury, and the watch was vigilantly kept. In a 
few weeks reason again obtained the mastery, and it was safe 
to let him return to his studies and his work. He could indeed 
work again, and lie coukl once more study law, for there was a 
kind of relief in steady occupation and absorbing toil ; but he 
was not, could not ever be, the same man. In time even the 
joke and the laugh would come to his lips, but they would 
never cease to have the appearance and character of brief sun- 
shine breaking through a cloud, and there was always a great 
storm of rain resolutely held back in the inner darkness of that 
cloud. 

Lincoln had been fond of poetry from boyhood, and had 
grachially made himself familiar vri\\i large parts of Shake- 
speare's plays and the works of other great writers. He now 
discovered in a strange collection of cnide verses, by an un- 
knoM'n hand, the one poem which seemed best to express the 
morbid, troubled, sore condition of his- mind. Those who then 
or afterwards heard him repeat the lines by "WiUiam Knox, 
beginning — 

"Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" 



110 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

discovered what a wealth of pathetic expression could be 
poured forth through them. Uttered by him as the voice of 
his suffering, they took into their mournful cadences a power 
and a majesty borrowed from the grief which drove Abraham 
Lincoln from the grave of Ann Rutledge broken-hearted and 
all but insane. 

All men in that vicinity well knew the sad, romantic story, 
and there were no hearts on the Sangamon prairies so hard 
that they were not touched by the sorrow of their friend and 
neighbor. His popularity increased daily as he went about 
among them, thin, haggard, gloomy, and he was more than 
ever the idol of 'New Salem. The winter passed away, and 
then the spring, and another summer brought with it a renewal 
of pohtical excitement. There was no longer any question as 
to whether Mr. Lincoln should be elected to the Legislature. 
Thenceforward his place upon the Whig ticket was a matter 
of course so long as he should consent to such a use of his 
name. There was nothing, therefore, to mark for him espe- 
cially the campaign of 1836, except the fact that he stumped 
the county and received a greater number of votes than was 
given to any other candidate who ran for the Legislature that 
year. In fact, among a population so shifting, changing, grow- 
ing, he was already becoming one of the older and earher set- 
tlers, and the majority of his fellow-citizens were new men 
compared to him. 



BUBBLE LEGISLATION. \l\ 



CHAPTER XVI. 



BUBBLE LEGISLATION. 



An Episode — The Lightning-rod — The Long Nine— State Improvements — 
Anti-slavery Declarations — 1836. 

Theke is nothing else on earth so easily to be taken posses- 
sion of as an empty house, whether or not the new occupant 
may be or become the owner. 

When Lincoln returned to work and to political excitement 
he also necessarily returned to the society of women. He 
sorely needed all three, and every other attainable help, to keep 
his mind in order. It could hardly be called well regulated as 
yet, and his emotional nature was entirely out of gear. Kind 
and busy friends, moreover, came to the rescue, and, by their 
management, in the autumn of 1836 he found himself corre- 
sponding with an attractive young lady named Mary Owens. 
He had not at all forgotten Ann Rutledge, and the matter 
would be hard to understand if so many of the letters which 
passed between the two had not been preserved and actually 
printed. They offer a suflScient explanation, for they make 
very plain the fact that there was no feeling aroused on either 
side at all worthy to be spoken of as " love." She was hand- 
some, well educated, intelligent, with enough of good sense to 
admire a strong and rising man. He was restless, feverish, 
unsettled, hungry at heart — he did not know for Mdiat ; and so 
there grew up an intimacy, a friendship, a protracted, strug- 
gling imitation of a courtship and engagement. From the 
latter they were both finally glad to release each other. 

It is entirely just to say of Mr. Lincoln that during that 
brief period of his life he knew very little of himseK. The 



112 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

continual developments of his nature and its powers must now 
and then have brought surprises to him, but it is a curious fact 
that nobody else seems ever to have been greatly surprised. 
He was a man from whom uncommon performances were ex- 
pected. 

In joke or in earnest, or in somewhat of both,- one of the first 
public utterances in behalf of female sufEi-age came from his 
pen. In a printed declaration of his principles, issued during 
the canvass for that year's election, he said among other things : 

" I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who 
assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently I go for admitting 
all whites to the right of suffrage who ]Day taxes or bear arms 
— ^by no means excluding females." 

The subject was not then under discussion in Ilhnois, but 
Mr. Lincoln's after-course proved how prompt and decided was 
sure to be his response to any appeal to his sense of justice. 

The style of his oratory was now rapidly imj)roving, and his 
speeches became occasional surprises even to those who knew 
him best and expected most of him. He wasted nothing upon 
mere display, but then, as afterwards, he exhibited a marvelous 
capacity for using to advantage the smallest available fact or 
circumstance within his reach at the moment. The smaller 
and sharper might be the point of any thrust, the deeper he 
was apt to drive it home. 

A good illustration of this faculty is found in a speech of 
his, in the campaign of 1836, in reply to a Mr. Forquer. This 
gentleman had deeply offended aU notions of political morality 
by a recent desertion of the Whigs, and the feeling against him 
was very bitter. He was a man of wealth and standing. Reg- 
ister of the United States Land Ofiice at Springfield, owning 
the best " frame house" in that town. From the roof of this 
residence arose the one sohtary hghtning-rod in all that part 
of the State, and it had attracted more than a little popular at- 
tention. 

At a political meeting Mr. Lincoln made a speech of more 



BUBBLE LEGISLATION. 113 

than common power, to Mr. Forquer's especial disgnst and 
astonishment. He replied ably but superciliously, beginning 
with the rash assertion that " the yoimg man would have to be 
taken down." Throughout his remarks he asserted and 
claimed his personal superiority. Lincoln listened attentively, 
and at the end of ]yir. Forquer's speech he took the' stand 
again. He replied with force and dignity to whatever of 
argument he had to deal with, but at the conclusion of his 
remarks he turned upon his lofty opponent with, 

" You began your speech by announcmg that ' this yoimg 
man would have to be taken down.' " 

Turning again to the crowd, he added : 

" It is for you, not for me, to say whether I am up or down. 
The gentleman has alluded to my being a young man. I am 
older in years than I am in the tricks and trades of politicians. 
I desire to live, and I desire place and distinction as a politi- 
cian ; but I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, 
live to see the day when I would have to erect a lightning-rod 
to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God." 

Nevertlieless that solitary lightning-rod led Mr. Lincoln to 
a study and knowledge of the laws of electricity. Eight there 
was a difference between him and the other men who stared at 
the novel iron ornament upon Mr. Forquer's roof. He alone 
could make a spear of it, in a speech, wherewith to transfix its 
owner, and then accept it as a directing finger pointing him 
the way to a new field of scientific inquiry. 

He had made such good use of his first term in the Legisla- 
ture that on his return he at once took rank as an able debater 
and parliamentarian. He was also slcilled in the tactics re- 
quired in securing majorities for his favorite schemes. 

The politics of the State had now become more closely con- 
nected with those of the country at large. 

The subject of State banks, carrying with it all questions of 
local finance, was interwoven with the management of the 
United States Treasury and the fate of the United States 



114 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Bank. At the same time, the policy of the general govern- 
ment with reference to its sales of public lands was nowhere 
of more importance than in Illinois. 

Mr. Lincoln's brain was teeming more fruitfully than ever 
with projects for public improvements. The example of New 
York was continually before him, and he had formed, with 
reference to the canals of his own State, the high ambition of 
becoming "the De Witt Clinton of Illinois." There was 
nothing mean or low in such an aspiration in the mind of a 
young man who was only separated by five short years from 
the deck of a ilatboat and by less than three from bankruptcy, 
poverty, and the sheriffs hammer. 

He served upon the Committee on Finance. The ideas 
of State credit entertained by that committee may be gathered 
from the facts, among many, that for the furtherance of canal 
and other enterprises laws were passed authorizing loans to 
the amount of twelve milHons of dollars. The money was to 
be obtained by the sale of State bonds, and was then to be 
employed in quite a variety of ways. It was fully believed 
that into the State, improved by that expenditure, a flood of 
immigration would surely and swiftly roll, to oj)en farms, 
pay taxes, and so to make the bonds good property in the 
hands of the imaginary capitalists who were now to buy them. 

The passage of a " law" creating capitalists for the occasion, 
does not seem to have been thought of, but the nominal capital 
of the State Bank and of other banks was largely increased, 
that they might issue abundant notes, and so that " money" 
might be plentiful. 

Small blame rightly attaches to any of the untutored legis- 
lators who proposed or voted for all these wonderful schemes 
for making all men rich at railway speed. They knew no 
better until, at last, the bursting of their own pretty bubbles, 
with all the other bubbles the whole nation had been blowing, 
sent them back to their constituencies sadder and wiser men. 

One other project was kept continually in the foreground 



BUBBLE LEGISLATION. 115 

by that Legislature. The seat of the State government, at 
Yandalia, was too far from the geographical center. It was 
inconvenient, unpopular, and there were several other towns, 
some of them even more badlj situated, whose citizens were 
eager to have the advantages of a " capital " within their cor- 
porate limits. 

For many reasons the young city of Springfield, in Lincoln's 
own county of Sangamon, seemed entitled to the preference. 
Every man of the county representatives could discern those 
reasons clearly and argue them convincingly. There were nine 
of these gentlemen, two in the Senate and seven in the lower 
house, and their bodily size had acquired for them the title of 
" the Long Nine." Taken together, they were fifty -four feet 
long ; Mr. Lincoln himseK having a surplus of four inches to 
contribute in making up tlie average of six feet. They were 
tireless workers and well skilled in the art of influencing their 
associates. They so arranged the removal of the capital to 
Springfield that it was firmly wedged into a combination of all 
the other schemes, and the bill for it was passed in the last 
hours of the session. It was an enduring piece of work, and 
the State is governed from that town at the present time. 

Mr. Lincoln could now return to Sangamon County and 
New Salem with a consciousness that he liad done for his en- 
thusiastic constituents at least as much as they couhl reasonably 
expect of him. He had, however, done one thing more, and a 
greater and worthier thing than any siiccess he had won as an 
advocate of internal improvement or the removal of the State 
capital. He had made a bold, clear record of his views upon 
the subject of human slavery. 

The Legislature adjourned upon the 4th of March, and on 
the previous day, the 3d, with but one soKtaiy comrade, 
Daniel Stone, Abraham Lincohi presented to the House, and 
had read and spread upon the journals of record, the follow- 
ing protest : 

" Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having 



116 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

passed both branches of the General Assembly at its present 
session, the undersigned hereby protest against the passage of 
the same. 

" They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on 
both injustice and bad policy ; but that the promulgation of 
aboKtion doctrines tends rather to increase than to abate its 
evils. 

" They beheve that the Congress of the United States has 
no power, under the Constitution, to interfere with the insti- 
tution of slavery in the different States. 

" They beheve that the Congress of the United States has 
the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the 
District of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be exer- 
cised unless at the request of the people of the District. 

" The difference between these opinions and those contained 
in the said resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. 
"Dajst. Stone, 
"A. Lincoln, 
" Eepresentatives from the county of Sangamon." 

Only two men in that numerous body chmbed high enough, 
at that time, or had the courage to declare that human slavery 
was " founded on injustice and bad policy," whatever might be 
their opinion of the force of the existing laws by which it was 
protected. It was a bold thing to do, in a day when to be an 
antislavery man, even at the ITorth, was to be a sort of social 
outcast and political pariah. Twenty years were to roll away 
before a great party was to adopt, as its platform of principles, 
declarations nearly equivalent and but little more advanced 
than the brave protest in which Abraham Lincoln induced his 
friend Dan Stone to join him. 

That was the first public fruit of the flatboat studies of hu- 
man slavery away down the Mississippi River, and other views 
of it obtained in the slave-market at ISTew Orleans. The neces- 
sary moral education for persisting in making such a record 



BUBBLE LEGISLATION. 117 

had been received tlirougli "object-lessons," and tbe actual 
sight of slave and whip, and brand and fetters, and the barter 
and sale of human flesh and blood. 

Lincoln had struck his first blow in the great warfare, and it 
was as hard a stroke as the occasion permitted It was a regis- 
tered prophecy that he would strike again in the fullness of 
time and when another opportunity should be given him. 



118 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE YOUNG LAWYER. 

Admitted to the Bar— Honest Poverty— The Panic of 1837— Politics again 
— Matrimonial tendencies — Another Darkness. 

Ukdek every disadvantage and in spite of all manner of in- 
terruptions and hindrances, Mr. Lincoln steadily pursued the 
study of the law. Early in the year 183Y he was admitted to 
practice. He could not hope to build up a law business at E'ew 
Salem, and at once removed to Springfield. 

Here he sooned formed a partnership with John P. Stuart, 
the same kind friend from whom he had borrowed law-books 
in the by-gone years, when he was glad to walk to Sj)ringfield 
for them and read them all the long walk home. 

The young lawyer was still poor. He took his meals at the 
very respectable residence of Hon. Wilham Butler, a political 
friend, but he slept on a narrow lounge in the law-office of 
Stuart & Lincoln, in the second story of the court-house build- 
ing. He had debts to pay, and he was steadily, honestly pay- 
ing them ; not in any way wasting a dollar of other people's 
money. He was dealing with vast sums as a legislator, and the 
expenditure of these and the management of the many bubble 
schemes of the day were mixed and tainted with fraud, corrup- 
tion, and bribery. Everybody knew this; but it was also 
known that the most active advocate of public improvement 
among the Ilhnois legislators could not afford to hire himseK a 
small room in a Springfield boarding-house. The bitterest 
tongue of political detraction never ventured to assail his per- 
sonal honor. Had any man been so siHy as to question Lin- 



THE TOUKG LAWYER. 119 

coin's integrity, at that or any subsequent time, he would but 
have coyered himself with derision. 

The Springfield bar, in those days, numbered among its 
members many men of more than common ability. There 
were some, indeed, whose names were soon to be familiar to 
the whole country. It was not, therefore, because his com- 
petitors were few or weak that Lincoln rapidly advanced to a 
foremost position as a sound and able lawyer. From the out- 
set he was compelled to fight his way against men eyery way 
capable of testing his powers to the uttermost, and there was 
none of them whose apparent educational advantages had not 
been greater than his own. 

The year 1837 was marked in the history of the United 
States by the severest financial crisis the country had experi- 
enced since the close of the Eevolutionary War. On the 10th 
of May the banks of New York suspended specie payments ; 
and on the 12th the Bank of the United States and those of 
Philadelphia followed the example so set them. Fast and far 
the ruin spread in all directions. In July the Governor of Il- 
linois called a special session of the State Legislature, to see if 
something could not be done for the epidemic bankniptcy by 
the passage of medicinal laws. 

The first act which was passed had the effect of permitting 
all the banks in the State to suspend specie payments. Noth- 
ing was done, however, to prevent them issuing further paper 
promises to pay the money they did not have and could not 
hope to obtain. Neither was any step taken towards dimin- 
ishing the current outlay for internal improvements. More 
loans were actually authorized, and the State went on flounder- 
ing deeper and deeper into the Dismal Swamp of disaster pre- 
pared for it by its crazy people as represented by young Lin- 
coln and all the other '' De AVitt Clintons of Illinois." 

When all had been done that could be devised, the legislators 
from a distance went home to their constituents. There was 
no more mischief to be feared from them until another election 



120 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

should call them together. Mr. Lincoln remained in Spring- 
field, resuming what there was of his law practice and the slow 
process of wiping out his debts. 

All idea of marr^-ing Mary Owens seems to have left him 
early in 1838. I^othing more would ever have been heard of 
that affair if, in after-years, its futile record had not been disin- 
terred too zealously from old letter-boxes and doubtful mem- 
ories. One value of it now is the testimony so borne to the 
fact that not even his admitted abilities were as yet considered 
by many a social set-off to his gaunt, ungainly person, his 
awkward, unpolished manners, and the serious deficiencies of 
his early training and family connections. He had broken 
through every barrier but that of "caste." That, too, was 
yet to go down before him, and he was one day to take his 
seat, uncrowned indeed, but throned, among the kings of the 
earth. 

It was nearly a matter of course that Mr. Lincoln should be 
again elected to the Legislature in 1838 ; and when that body 
came together he was the candidate of the Whig party for 
Speaker of the House. The Democratic nominee, Mr. Ewing, 
was elected by a small majority ; but the unquestioned leader- 
ship won by Lincoln at so early a day is worthy of especial 
notice. The same honorable nomination was given him by his 
party in the succeeding Legislature, and with the same foregone 
result, for the Democrats were in power. 

In that year, 1840, occurred one of the most remarkable of 
American political campaigns, resulting in the election of 
General Harrison as President of the United States. Mr. Lin- 
coln was a candidate for Presidential Elector on the Whig 
ticket, and he " stumped " a large part of the State in company 
and contest with the leading orators of the opposite party. 

For the first time his reputation became other than some- 
what local, and his tall form began to be familiar to the eyes 
of the general public of Elinois. Once seen, once heard, there 
was no danger that he would ever be forgotten. Prior to that 



TUE TOUXG LAWYER. 121 

date he had done something as a lecturer, but only within a 
narrow circle of small audiences. 

He was now approaching a second crisis of his moral and 
emotional nature, and one which proved to be terribly severe. 

Among his especial friends in Springfield were Mr. Ninian 
Edwards and his family. Mrs. Edwards was a daughter of 
Hon. Kobert S. Todd of Lexington, Kentucky, and her sister 
Mary, a bright, witty, and handsome young nvoman, came to 
reside with her at about the time of the removal of the State 
capital to Springfield, in the year 1839. 

Mr. Lincoln found himself constantly thrown into the society 
of a well-educated, cheerful, and in some respects fascinating 
young lady. It was not long before he began to listen to the 
suggestions of her friends and his own that he had better 
marry Mary Todd. He deeply felt his utter loneliness. The 
idea of a home had a charm that was all its own, for that was a 
gift which had hitherto been denied 1dm. Miss Todd herself, 
though from a family of much pretension to " position," had a 
keen perception of the ability and worth of the rising young 
lawyer. He was poor ; he was fettered and clogged by many 
disadvantages of person, manner, education, history ; but she 
was a young woman of more than ordinary penetration and 
good sense. She saw that here was a man worthy of any 
woman, and her mind speedily settled itself in his favor with a 
firmness which was afterwards proof against all trials. It was 
not long before a formal betrothal resulted. He was by no 
means her only suitor, but had rivals for her favor whose 
worldly prospects, as compared with his own, relieve Miss Todd 
of any imputation that she Nvas influenced in her choice by 
mere ambition. It is said that at one time, being asked which 
of her admirers, Lincoln or Douglas, she preferred, she laugh- 
ingly replied, "The one that has the best chance of being 
President.'' It is amusing enougli now to note how some men 
look ])ack gravely to that merry conversation and accuse the 
lively Kentucky girl of exercising the gift of prophecy, instead 



122 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of consulting her own heart, in deciding between two active 
young pohticians in a new-born Western State. 

Lincoln was now engaged to be married, and his purpose 
might have drifted smoothly onward to fulfillment if it had 
not been for the arrival of yet another member of the Edwards 
family. This was a Miss Matilda Edwards, the sister of his 
friend. She was very fair, and quickly became the reigning 
belle of Springfield. Mr, Lincoln saw much of her and felt 
drawn towards her irresistibly. She had a secret to unfold to 
him ; an unveiling of his inner life to perform for him. 
What might be her mission he did not know or understand for 
a while. He even imagined the emotion now stirring within 
him to be a love for Miss Edwards, although he never told her 
80. Looking upon her face, however, he discovered that he 
was not in love with Miss Todd, and that his engagement with 
the latter was based upon no better foundation than respect, 
admiration, and a keen sense of his own need of a wife and 
home. Upon that discovery followed another like an electric 
shock, and he went at once to Miss Todd to offer her a release 
from her engagement. Had her heart been as lightly bound 
as his, there could have been but one result ; but the interview 
did not end in a release. The young man's keen sense of honor 
was in the way of that, and tliis was reinforced by a deeper, 
stronger, sadder consideration. He could not confide to her 
the real reason of his apparent change, although he could freely 
disavow any intention or hope of obtaining Miss Edwards. 
But for this, indeed, jealousy would have come to the quick 
and somewhat fiery spirit of Miss Todd, and Lincoln would 
have been spared a part, at least, of the sharp agony in store 
for him. He went away, carrying his secret with him, and 
the wedding-day was set. All things were made ready, even 
to the setting forth of the marriage-feast ; but when the hour 
appointed came, it did not bring the bridegroom. 

The brain whose steady strengtli had already found a place 
among the best-trained intellects of the West — sustained as was 



THE TOUNO LAWYER. 123 

that brain by a bodily frame of tbe most extraordinary power 
and by a will of iron — had once more been swept into tempo- 
rary rain as by a hurricane of passionate sorrow. His discovery 
was that all the heart and love he had, or ever could have, lay 
buried on the bank of the Sangamon, in the grave of Ann 
Eutledge. 

Lincoln was positively demented — morbidly, gloomily insane. 
He was equally unfit for marriage, for society, for business. 
Once more he was indebted to a faithful friend for the care 
and watching he stood in need of. He never had one wiser 
and more true than Mr. J. F. Speed. This gentleman, then a 
resident and merchant of Springfield, was closing up his busi- 
ness there, and early in January, 184:1, he removed to a new 
home in Kentucky, carrying Lincoln with him. 

Complete cessation of mental toil ; severance from too sug- 
gestive surroundings of places and persons; with the firm, 
judicious management of friends in whom he put utter confi- 
dence, gave the disordered intellect of the smitten man its 
best opportunity for restoration to health. Month after month 
went by, however, before it was deemed safe to trust him back 
among his dangers. Spring and summer and part of the au- 
tumn passed away, and with them a whole session of the Legis- 
lature to which he had been elected. Then he returned. But 
he was not yet altogether himself. He kept the secret of the 
agony which had ovei-powered him, but his mind still vacillated 
strangely concerning his matrimonial engagement. IMiss Todd's 
friends at one time urged her to give him up. At another 
they seem to have given her directly opposite counsel. So did 
the friends of Lincoln and of both for him. The two met and 
met again, but there is no record that at any time there was a 
sign of a change of pui'pose in Mary Todd. It is not well to 
speak or think liglitly of such womanly faith and constancy as 
this. She loved him, trusted him, and she continually drew 
him to her more and more nearly and irrevocal)ly. 

On his return to Springfield, Mr. Lincoln at once resumed 



124 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

his law-practice and plunged again into politics. Habitually 
gloomy as liis face had grown to be, he did not wear his heart 
upon liis sleeve. He took his part with energy in all the affairs 
of the day. It was well, too, for his mental health, to be 
brought so continually in contact with a high-spirited and fun- 
loving girl like Mary Todd. 

In the course of the following year a merry prank of hers 
ended in a serious scrape for him. 

Miss Todd was mistress of a somewhat biting style of satire, 
and enjoyed the application of it highly. It even led her to 
the occasional contribution of political lamjDOons to the Spring- 
field newspapers. As a matter of course, Mr. Lincoln was ad- 
mitted to the secret of the authorship of these " Letters from 
the Lost Townships," and he may have aided in the prepara- 
tion of one or more of them. 

Among the rising poHticians of Illinois, at that time, was a 
young Irish gentleman, James Shields, afterwards to be famous 
as a soldier and political leader, but whose quick temper and 
sensitiveness to ridicule rendered him a dangerous target for 
the mischievous archery of Mary Todd. 

Letter after letter appeared in " The Sangamon Journal," 
hitting harder and harder, until Mr. Shields could endure no 
longer, and sent a friend to the editor demanding the author's 
name. 

The editor, placed in a somewhat awkward position, revealed 
a half-truth by giving to the messenger. General Whiteside, 
the name of Abraham Lincoln. 

A peppery and offensive communication was at once written 
by Mr. Shields to Mr. Lincoln, eliciting a dignified but unsatis- 
factory reply, and a challenge to fight a duel speedily followed. 
The " code of honor," as it was the absurd fashion to describe 
the system of fantastic rules regulating that form of deliberate 
murder, was then in full force in the West. Even those who 
perceived its insanity and hated its brutality had not yet learned 
to repudiate its helhsh authority. 



THE YOUNG LAWYER. 125 

It seemed therefore necessary for Mr. Lincoln to accept the 
challenge. Then it was needful that the friends of both par- 
ties should solemnly ruffle through the customary correspon- 
dence, pubhc and private. There were the usual interviews, 
misunderstandings, delicate points of honor, and all the other 
doings and undoings which make the duehst ridiculous. At 
last the very place of meeting was agreed upon, three miles 
from Alton, Illinois, but on the Missouri shore of the Missis- 
sippi Kiver. The weapons selected were " cavalry broadswords 
of the largest size," and the idea of being hacked at with such 
a cleaver by a man of Lincoln's size and strength could hardly 
have been a pleasant one for Mr. James Shields. 

It was very nmch a matter of course that the seconds, sur- 
geons, mutual friends, and other members of the customary 
mob of assistants at such an affair managed to patch the mat- 
ter up in time to prevent the use of the broadswords, and after- 
wards the truth gradually leaked out as to the authorship of 
the " Letters from the Lost Townships." Mr. Lincoln did not 
fight the duel, and the larger share of the ridicule attached to 
Mr. Shields, but it remained a sore subject to the former ever 
afterwards. 

The arrangements for not fighting had been somewhat elabo- 
rate, and had dragged on through all the latter part of Septem- 
ber and into October. Right along with them, and, as it 
seemed, somewhat hand-in-hand, a more important result had 
been preparing. 

On the -Ith of November Mr. Lincoln was manied to Mary 
Todd. 

The young couple went into very respectable quarters, board- 
ing at the Globe Tavern, where they were compelled to pay 
the then good price of four dollars a week. The bridegroom 
was finally out of debt, but he was still poor and had never 
cultivated the faculty of making money. He was henceforth 
to have a helpmeet who would see to it that his finances were 
kept in better order ; but even Mrs. Lincoln pei-petuaUy failed 



126 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

in her efforts to induce liim to make a proper use of his busi- 
ness advantages. 

Mr. Lincoln's mind had now recovered health and tone and 
the calm strength wliich it never again lost. He was as hard 
a student as ever, both of books and men, and his professional 
reputation was increasing. He was once more the life and 
soul of political movements and party organizations. There 
was no danger that his ambition would be permitted to slum- 
ber, with a wife at his elbow who fully believed in his capacity 
for almost any earthly achievement, and whose own political 
faculties were much more than ordinary. 



MANHOOD. 127 



CHAPTER XYni. 

MAJfHOOD. 

An Honest Lawyer— A Storm— The Henry Clay Campaign— The Old Cabin 
—Partnerships— Coarse and Fine— Elected Congressman— The Mexi- 
can War— President Making— The Pro- Slavery Formula— Southern 
Friendships. 

Neither politics nor social nor domestic interests prevented 
Mr. Lincoln from giving careful and laborious attention to his 
professional duties. On the 3d of December, 1839, he was 
admitted to practice in the Circuit Court of the United States. 
His presentation of his first case in that court stands all alone 
in the annals of the law. He arose and addressed the bench 
as foUows : 

" Tliis is the first case I have ever had in this court, and I 
have therefore examined it with great care. As the Court will 
perceive by looking at the abstract of the record, the only ques- 
tion in this case is one of authority. I have not been able to 
find any autliority sustaining my side of the case, but I have 
found several cases directly in point on the other side. I will 
now give these cases and tlien submit the case." 

The courage, candor, simple honor, required for such an 
utterance, working out afterwards in all he said or did, before 
judges and juries, gave him a power with them which was pe- 
culiarly his own. Men cannot fail to be influenced by the 
truth-seeking argument of an advocate in whose integrity 
they are compelled by him to repose unquestioning confidence. 

There were cases brought to him which he could not and 
would not touch. Ko possible fee would induce him to be- 



128 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

come the instrument of injustice under cover of legal form 
and merely technical right. 

A few months after Mr. Lincoln's marriage an active can- 
vass began within the limits of the Whig party as to who 
should be its candidate for Congressman from the Sangamon 
district. The prospect for an election by the people was very 
good, and there were several gentlemen whose friends were 
hotly urging their respective claims. Mr. Lincoln earnestly 
desired the nomination, but now, for the first time in his jDoli- 
tical career, he found himself assailed upon purely personal 
grounds. It would hardly have answered the purposes of his 
rivals to attack him for his low origin before a community 
among whom such an assault would but have added to his popu- 
larity. He could, on the other hand, be accused of having de- 
serted the cause of the common people by marrying an " aristo- 
cratic" wife. All good men who believed the Bible could be 
told that he was a deist or an infidel. At the same time, mem- 
bers of the more numerous sects could be assured that he was 
an Episcopalian or a Presbyterian, with equal recklessness of 
the fact that he was neither. J^othing was forgotten or neg- 
lected which could be remembered or invented against him, 
and he was comjDclled to bend before the storm. He withdrew 
his name at last in favor of Mr. E. T>. Baker, and that gentle- 
man was both nominated and elected to the Twenty-ninth 
Congress. He received, throughout the canvass, the active 
support of the defeated aspirant. 

In the year 1844, Mr. Lincoln's political idol, Henry Clay, 
was nominated by the Whigs for the Presidency, and Lincoln 
was once more named as a candidate for Presidential Elector. 
He threw himseK into the campaign with aU his energy, and 
was bitterly disappointed by the defeat of his party and its 
great representative. He made many speeches in Illinois, but 
the most notable part of his work, that year, came to him in 
Indiana. The course of his campaign appointments carried 
him to Gentryville and its neighborhood. He made three 



MANHOOD. 129 

speeches within a few miles, one of them within two miles, of 
the log-cabin his father had built so many years before. The 
comitry had vastly changed, and so had its inhabitants, but not 
so much as had the barefooted boy who shivered under the 
" pole-shelter" that first winter. 

While in the middle of his speech at Gentryville, he espied 
an old boy-friend and neighbor, IS'at Grigsby, far back among 
his hearers. The argument suddenly stopped and the orator 
sprang down from the platform, urging his way through the 
crowd and exclaiming, " There's Xat !" Xot till after a good 
shake of the hand and a hearty word about old times with Xat 
did the gathered voters hear the rest of Lincoln's plea on be- 
half of Henry Clay. 

ISTat and nearly all the rest of the children of the early set- 
tlers of the Pigeon Creek forests were still, except for the 
lapse of time, living at the earthy level upon which they had 
been bora. Their original advantages had been at least as 
good, and in many instances had been much better, than those 
of Abraham Lincoln. lie, however, had so grown and so de- 
parted from that level of human life, during the thirteen years 
since he toiled on foot from the woods of Indiana to the prai- 
ries of niLnois, that now there was a great gulf between him 
and them. 

Other eyes could discern the abyss of separation more clearly 
than could those of " the orator of the day." He insisted on 
going with Nat Grigsby to pay a visit to the same Mr. Jones, 
in Gentryville, for whom he had performed his earliest service 
as clerk. He made it a merry time, apparently, and he met 
all old and new acquaintances with the heartiest cordiality. 
The uses of fun and humor as a mask of his inner man were 
abeady only too familiar to him. It was well for him, then 
and afterwards, that he possessed so excellent a shield. 

In the shadows of the M'oods near Gentryville there were 
many graves. Among them were those of Lincoln's own 
mother and sister. The very woods themselves were a sort of 



130 ABBAHAM LINCOLN: 

burial-ground for the strange, hard, unchildlike childhood out 
of whose hunger and thirst and nakedness of soul and body he 
had grown to his present stature. He could not look upon the 
log-cabin of his earlier days without understanding that some 
of the precious treasures of human life had been denied him. 
His very capacity for reading and so for leading the coarse and 
sordid men and women around him told of a side of his being 
that was born and bred with him and that never could or 
would be polished away. The capacity was needful, was in- 
valuable, but it had cost something. If it had been possible, 
and if he had chiseled his character away to a finer model, 
more in accord with conventional standards of human per- 
fection, all these important elements of American life would 
have missed finding their own image in him. Failing that, the 
people would have refused him the strong, instinctive con- 
fidence and love which finally flowed to him and enabled him 
to bind the hearts of a nation together as one man, and in one 
man, in the hour of the nation's trial. 

It is a curious fact that, now, it is among the same people, 
educated or uneducated, whether nominally high or low, 
rich or poor, but who personally knew Lincoln so very well in 
those old days, we hear the one faint and grumbhng negation 
of his greatness. In the language of one prairie-farmer, un- 
consciously speaking for many : " Wal, no. Linkern wasn't 
so much of a man. I knowed him. He lived out this away, 
I've seen him a heap o' times. His folks was torn-down poor. 
Reckon they wouldn't ha' made sech a fuss about him ef he 
hadn't been shot. That helped him powerful. I knowed him." 

After the defeat of Henry Clay there was little to be done 
in politics until another campaign, and the life Mr. Lincoln 
led was necessarily a quiet one. He followed the movements 
of the courts from place to place, establishing his hard-earned 
reputation more and more firmly, and beginning to reap a har- 
vest, of fees which was wealth to a man of his simple tastes 
and inexpensive habits. He was now able to do something for 



MANHOOD. 131 

Ms beloved "mother," for his shiftless, improvident father, 
and for quite a long list of his early friends. He had, how- 
ever, the good sense not to go too far in this direction, and he 
then and afterwards refused to take upon his own shoulders 
the burden of carrying sundry altogether too willing depend- 
ents. Such of his communications to these and others as have 
been preserved exhibit a praiseworthy disposition to help even 
chronic indolence to help itself, but not to go much bevond 
that line. It was a matter of course that the persons aided, 
always excepting his sound-minded stepmother, entertained 
wider and more liberal views of what should be done for them 
by a man upon whom they held the strong claim that they 
had known him when he was as poor as themselves. In their 
minds, justice required that what they called his " luck" should 
be divided around among the easy-going mob who had sat so 
very still while he was toiling for it. 

Mr. Lincoln's first law-partnership, with John T. Stuart, 
which began in 1837, was dissolved in 18-11, in consequence of 
Mr. Stuart's election to Congress. His second partnersliip, 
with Stephen T. Logan, began in 1841 and lasted until 1845. 
Shortly afterwards he associated with him Mr. WiUiam H. 
Herndon, with whom his relations continued to the very end. 
These were, from the beginning, more near than tliose of mere 
business partners. The greater part of all that the world 
knows of Mr. Lincoln's early life has been gathered and pre- 
served by the iiffectionate diligence of his devoted friend. It 
goes almost without saying that Mr. Herndon stood too near 
the man he loved to form a just estimate of him as compared 
with other men, or to correctly discern some features of his 
character which required to be studied from a greater distance. 
It was not until some time after Mr. Lincoln began to " ride 
the circuit" that he was able to do so on a horse or in a buggy 
of his own; but whatever borrowed beast or vehicle brought 
him to any county-seat, he was sure to be welcomed by court 
and bar as the life of aU social gatherings. Among his profes- 



132 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Bional associates, more freely and completely than elsewhere, 
he could come out from his clouds and vapors and give vent to 
the keen but quiet humor which might have made a cheerful 
man of him but that so heavy a load was laid upon him con- 
tinually. 

There was little refinement of thought or speech among 
those Western lawyers or their clients. There had been none 
at all of either in the rough schools through which Mr. Lincoln 
had received his education. He had his finer side ; fine even 
to sensitiveness, and tender to an extreme capacity for suffer- 
ing ; but he did not cast the pearls of this before the swine of 
a miscellaneous " court-house crowd." As they were, so was 
he, for the hour; exhibiting to them, in careless freedom and 
good-fellowship, only such stores of wisdom, wit, or anecdote 
as were suited to the average taste, morahty, and brain of those 
who listened. It was a way in life by no means peculiar to 
him, and it was gradually worn from him in the sharp and 
hard attrition of his later days. It is a very feeble-minded 
error to suppose that even the richest vein of gold is naturally 
free from dross, or that its treasure is fitted for the mint before 
it has passed through the crushing-mill, the furnace, and been 
subjected to the subtle and searching arts of the refiner. There 
was much dross in the mind and in the speech of Abraham 
Lincohi in those days of close contact with the crime, mean- 
ness, fraud, chicanery, and pollution of a mixed law-practice 
among the new settlements of Illinois ; but there was very little 
dross of any kind in his heart, and out of this his mouth was 
sure to speak more and more as time went on. 

In the year 1846 there was again a sharp contest over the 
nomination of a candidate for Congressman by the Whig party 
in the Sangamon district. It was speedily reduced to a com- 
petition between the sitting member. General Hardin, and Mr. 
Lincoln, and, as early as February 26th, the former withdrew 
in favor of the new aspirant. The regular nomination was 
made in the following May, and both before it and afterwards 



MANHOOD. 133 

the personal record of the candidate was searched for all its 
vulnerable points. His supposed religions convictions were 
assailed all the more bitterly because his poHtical opponent in 
the campaign was Peter Cartwright, an eccentric but popular 
preacher of the Methodist persuasion. The effort to make the 
contest one between saint and sinner broke down altogether, 
and Mr. Lincoln was elected by an uncommonly large majority. 

He had thus attained a long-sought object of his ambition, 
and there were great reasons, not in any man's mind then, why 
a term of service in Congress was especially needful to him. 
The honor cost him a high price. His law-practice must suffer 
seriously, in spite of all that could be done in his absence by 
Mr. Hemdon. Separation from home was inevitable, for his 
circumstances did not permit that he should take his young 
and growing family with him to Washington. Robert, his 
first-bom child, was beginning to talk and run around the 
house; but his second, Willy, was still a babe in arms, having 
been born on the 10th of March in that year. 

Mr. Lincoln's position in that Congress, the Thirtieth, as the 
only "Whig member from the State of Illinois, had its peculiar 
difficulties and responsibilities. It had its unpleasant features 
as well as its honors. It gave him a certain exceptional influ- 
ence and weight Avith Whig statesmen from other parts of the 
country, and in a manner vastly widened his constituency at 
home. At the same time it was obvious that no other man 
could be more sure of careful watching by political opponents. 
The least misstep was certain to be made the most of against 
him. He understood it all, and then, so understanding, he de- 
liberately went forward to make, one after the other, the pre- 
cise missteps his most bitter critics would have asked of him. 
He was a politician, truly, but he was a great deal more ; and it 
was no wonder, at the end of the Thirtieth Congress, that he 
should be looked upon as a ruined man, in whose face the gates 
of further advancement had been closed by his own reckless 
hand. 



134 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: 

The House was organized on the 6th of December, 1847, 
Mi\ Lincoln being given a place on the Committee on Post 
Offices and Post Roads. His first speech, a short one, was 
made in connection with the business of that committee, and 
he wrote to Mr. Herndon that he found it as easy to speak in 
Congress as elsewhere. 

The great topics of the hour were the Mexican "War and the 
extension of Slavery, the two being interwoven, and both call- 
ing for constant discussion in many forms. 

From his own convictions and as a representative of the 
Whig party, Mr. Lincoln was opposed to the war with Mexico. 
As early as the 22d of December he offered a preamble and 
resolutions setting forth his views of the varied wrongs in- 
volved in the course pursued by the administration of Presi- 
dent Polk in the current dispute with the weak, chaotic re- 
public beyond the Eio Grande. The war was soon to become 
popular by reason of the miHtary glory won by the army, and 
Mr. Lincoln's advocacy of the weak against the strong lost to 
him and to his party the greater portion of his pohtical strength 
in Illinois. He made a somewhat elaborate speech in behaK 
of his resolutions on the 12th of January, 1848, but it was all 
too late to stem the tide of war. All that any politician could 
do, in or out of Congress, was to put himself in such a position 
that he would surely be swept away by the flood of popular 
passion. Like other Whigs, Mr. Lincoln voted for requisite 
suppHes for the army in the field. It is even noteworthy how 
close is the analogy between his position with reference to the 
Mexican war and that afterwards held by many conscientious 
Democrats with reference to the war for the Union. It goes 
far to explain the mutual confidence which existed, at the lat- 
ter period, between him and them ; and the country was the 
gainer. 

Wliile the war lasted it was exceedingly popular, but the 
sure reaction from its fierce excitement temporarily crippled 
the party which was responsible for it. Nevertheless, the 



MANHOOD. 135 

political chiefs who had most actively opposed it were not at 
once available candidates for political honors. Mr. Lincoln 
saw clearly that not himseK only bnt such men as Henry Clay, 
Daniel Webster, and all the old-time Whig giants must be set 
aside. That men accustomed to control should fail to appre- 
ciate a necessity so disagreeable was every way natural, and 
their friends with keener perceptions were compelled to bestir 
themselves in time. It was needful that a "Wliig Presidential 
candidate should be fixed upon in advance of the Whig Na- 
tional Convention if one was to be offered with any prospect 
of an election by the people. There did not really seem to be 
more than one man who met the requirements of the political 
situation. General Zachary Taylor was the hero of some of 
the hardest-fought battles of the war, and he probably pos- 
sessed as much statesmanship as falls to the lot of most good 
mihtary commanders. A respectable lawyer from Western 
New York, Millard Fillmore, was given the second place on 
the ticket. Nobody knew enough about either of these gentle- 
men to say a word against them, and Taylor's war-record was 
full of political campaign material. Mr. Lincoln took an active 
part in arranging its business beforehand for the National Con- 
vention. He attended its formal meeting at Philadelphia on 
the 1st of June, assisted in placing the candidates upon the 
platform of principles constracted for them, and then returned 
to Washington to finish his work as a member of Congress. 

On the 20th of June he delivered in the House a speech 
upon his favorite subject of internal improvement. On the 
27th of July following he again spoke in an argument which 
embraced the entire field of the Presidential election and the 
leading political issues of the day. The most interesting fea- 
ture of this speech is the plainness watli which it sets forth 
Mr. Lincoln's unalterable opposition to slavery. He could not 
and did not offensively fornmlate it then and there. If his 
opinions were at all in advance of those held at the time by a 
large part of the Whig party in the Northern States, a wise 



136 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

care for the results of the pending election forbade their utter- 
ance. He was cautious, but proslavery men were by no means 
either blinded or satisfied by such moderation in him or in 
others. They well understood that all opposition to the " ex- 
tension of slavery" had for its source and foundation a hatred 
of human bondage for its own sake. It was easy for them, in 
their heated imaginations, to transfer that rooted hatred to 
themselves and to assume that it could not but be personal. 
They promptly adjusted themselves to that interpretation of 
all such utterances as those of Mr. Lincoln. They were men 
whose habits of life, of thought and action, forbade them to 
flinch from any issue presented. They were both able and 
courageous, and they ruled the country thereafter for twenty 
years by the mere presentation of the bold formula : " If you 
hate slavery, you hate us. If you desire to kill it, your real 
purpose is to murder the people of the South." 

Congress adjourned on the 14th of August, and Mr. Lincoln 
went to New England on a brief tour of political sj^eech-mak- 
ing. This was his first opportunity for acquiring any personal 
acquaintance with modes of Hfe in the Eastern States. Except 
for what study he had made of Yankee settlers in the West, he 
was entirely ignorant concerning a population wliich was yet 
to give him its very heart. He was, however, a student accus- 
tomed to learn rapidly the contents of the human pages brought 
before him. He could not possibly fail to profit by such an 
experience of contact and observation. 

The second session of the Thirtieth Congress did httle or 
nothing for the reputation of Mr. Lincoln. He voted with his 
party, now in brief control of the House. He even offered a 
bill for compensated emancipation of slaves held in the District 
of Columbia, but it died the natural death of all such proposi- 
tions in those days. Somewhat curiously, he made more and 
more lasting new friendships among Southern representative 
men than Northern. It was as if some subtle instinct bade 
him seek and study them, teUing him the importance of his 



MANHOOD. 137 

acquiring a knowledge of them and an understanding through 
them of the people who sent them to Congress. Some of these 
friendships, as that with Mi-. Stephens, of Georgia, came to the 
surface as poHtical factors and powers in subsequent emergen- 
cies. His correspondence with ]Mr. Hemdon during all this 
period exhibits his undiminished interest in his home affairs. 
It also shows that he was subject to all the minor annoyances 
and perplexities of a member of Congress, including the per- 
tinacities of office-seekers and the carping criticism of personal 
friends. There was really no reason why he should be anxious 
for a re-election, and there were many good reasons why he 
should not openly seek for one. Of these, perhaps the best, in 
his judgment, was the absolute certainty of defeat at the polls 
if he should be nominated. 



138 ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTEK XIX. 



THE COMING CONFLICT. 



Office Refused — The Missouri Compromise — A Sure Prophecy — Inner Life 
— Ripening — Death of Tom Lincoln — A "Written Confession of Faith. 

Mk. Lincoln would willingly have continued in Congress 
if such a thing had been pohtically possible ; but it was not. 
Among other obstacles appears to have been some sort of an 
informal understanding between him and other Whig leaders 
of central Illinois aiming at a rotation among them of the 
honor of representing the Sangamon district. The nomination 
fell to Lincoln's friend, Judge Logan, but he received it only 
to meet the sure defeat prepared for him by the anti-war and 
antislavery record of his predecessor. The latter at this junc- 
ture of his affairs made an effort to obtain from the new Whig 
administration the appointment of Commissioner of the Gen- 
eral Land Office at Washington. It was probably at that time 
the one public employment which would have offered him op- 
portunities for furthering his internal-improvement schemes. 
The national landed property, always large, had been greatly 
increased by the results of the war with Mexico. It was im- 
possible that Lincoln's mind should not turn with ideas and 
projects relating to the future use and occupation of areas so 
vast and so full of aU the prophecies of empire. 

The coveted post was given to another citizen of Illinois, 
and Mr. Lincoln was offered in its stead the governorship of 
Oregon Territory. He was urged by his friends to take the 
appointment, on the ground that Oregon would soon be a 
State and would thus send him to the United States Senate. 
It was a tempting bait, but all the reply he made was that he 



THE COMING CONFLICT. 139 

would accept if Mrs. Lincoln approved. The question was 
duly submitted to her, and her refusal was equally absolute 
and prompt. She would not let her husband bury himself 
agaiu in the wilds of another new country, and he acted upon 
her wifely advice, returning with all his accustomed vigor to 
his sadly run-down and neglected legal practice. 

The Eighth Judicial District was territorially large, includ- 
ing fourteen prairie counties. To each of the several county- 
seats Mr. Lincoln traveled twice in each year. Each circuit 
required nearly three months, and not much more than half of 
any year could be spent quietly at home by an active prac- 
titioner. In the intervals of these unavoidable absences 
Lincoln's home grew very dear to him. His habits were 
simple and domestic to the last degree, and liis fondness for 
his children was one of his most deeply marked characteristics. 
His wife was utterly devoted to him. His widening circle of 
friends grew more and more attached and trusting, and his 
affairs were eminently prosperous. His position was hardly 
second to that of any other man in the State, and it seemed 
that he had already won every success in life which could rea- 
sonably be aspired to by the son of an Indiana settler, a " poor 
white" from Kentucky. 

He himself was anything but satisfied. He was still aspir- 
ing, studying, preparing, growing. lie carried with him upon 
the circuit other books than those which treated of the law. 
Copies of Shakespeare, historical works, mathematical school 
text-books, were his frequent companions. He was still pur- 
suing in his ripe manhood the tireless process of education 
which he had begun ^vith a piece of charcoal and a wooden 
fire-shovel. 

He was much sought after as a " counsel for the defendant" 
in criminal cases, although his noted power over a jury passed 
away from him at once if he himself believed his client to be 
guilty. In one such case that is recorded he remarked to his 
associate counsel : 



140 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

" If you can say anytliing for tlie man, do it. I can't. If 
I attempt, tlie jury will see that I think he is guilty and con- 
vict him of course." 

The other lawyers followed their chief's example ; the case 
was submitted without argument ; and the jury, unassisted by 
any " confession" from Abraham Lincoln, failed to agree upon 
a verdict. 

In a similar case, years later, in Champaign County, a man 
was on trial for murder. Mr. Lincoln was employed to defend 
him, assisted by Leonard Swett. The prosecution was con- 
ducted by Ward H. Lamon and Judge Ficklin ; and when they 
had done their duty, the prisoner's leading counsel was con- 
vinced of his guilt. 

" Swett," said he, " the man is guilty. You defend him. I 
can't." 

Mr. Swett, only less effective before a jury than Mr. Lincoln 
himself, made the remaining fight so well that his client was 
acquitted ; but his associate refused to take any part of the fee 
that was paid for the work he had refused to do. 

There are many anecdotes told of Lincoln's professional 
readiness, wit, learning, capacity, eloquence, but few afford 
any better knowledge of the real life of the man. He was in- 
wardly advancing to a higher stature of mind and soul than 
was required for the winning of a succession of court-room 
victories over the arts of opposing counsel and over the minds 
of petty juries. 'Not as a mere lawyer, of what rank and 
power soever, was his name to go down to future generations. 
Still it is well to be assured that in these duties as in aU others 
he was notably capable and faithful. 

Questions of national importance were now beginning to 
stir more and more powerfully in his conscience and in his 
heart as the fruits of his Congressional experience slowly 
ripened. Long before going to "Washington, he had been sent 
to look with open eyes upon some aspects of the slave-life of 
the Southern States. While in Congress he had studied and 



THE COMING COyFLICT. 141 

understood the men wlio excused, defended, or glorified the 
laws and institutions by wluch that life was created and con- 
tinued in existence. 

It was not difficult for any thoughtful man to comprehend, 
in part at least, the purposes and plans of the advocates of 
slavery, for they were even brutally frank in many of their 
public declarations. They had to the uttermost the courage 
of their convictions, and they shrank from no part or issue or 
consequence of the work to which they had set themselves. 
Mr. Lincoln understood fully now their courage, their activity, 
their great intellectual ability. He saw with equal clearness 
the sluggish cowardice of all the opposition to their will, which 
had as yet a position to make itself effective. He knew men, 
and had analyzed the processes through which their slow 
thoughts and feelings are developed into purposes and pass on 
into express action. He was watching these processes with 
intense interest. In the -year 1850, in a conversation with his 
friend and former law-partner, Mr. Stuart, he said : 

" The time will come when we must all be Democrats or 
Abolitionists. When that time comes my mind is made up. 
The slavery question can't be compromised." 

" So is my mind made up," replied Mr. Stuart ; but it was 
that he would be no Abolitionist. 

The very thing Mr. Lincoln said could not be done was now 
attempted. Shallow thinkers said it had been done, by the so- 
called " Compromise Measures of 1850," whether regarded 
merely as laws or as a species of social contract. These, it may 
be well to recall, admitted Missouri without restriction as to 
Slavery, and at the same time prohibited Slavery forever in the 
new territory west of j\Iissouri and north of the latitude 36° 30' 
— the southern boundary line of that State. This " IMissouri 
Compromise" did indeed arise to the dignity of a hollow and 
fraudulent political truce. So long as the fetters it sought to 
impose retained their fictitious binding jDOwer there was no 
fitting place in poHtics for men like Abraham Lincoln. The 



142 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

condition of liis mind with reference to all this matter is 
admirably set forth by Mr. Herndon : 

" Mr. Lincoln and I were going to Petersburg, in 1850, I 
think. The political world was dead : the compromises of 
1850 seemed to have settled the negro's fate. Things were 
stagnant, and all hope for progress in the line of freedom 
seemed to be crushed out. Lincoln was speculating with me 
about the deadness of things and the despair which arose out 
of it, and deeply regretting that his human strength and power 
were limited by his nature to rouse and stir up the world. He 
said gloomily, despairingly, sadly : ' How hard, oh, how hard 
it is to die and leave one's country no better than if one had 
never Hved for it ! The world is dead to hope, deaf to its own 
death-struggle, made known by a universal cry. What is to 
be done ? Is anything to be done ? Who can do anything ? 
And how is it to be done? Did you ever think of these 
things?'" 

It was a grand utterance ; and the world can understand it 
now, and can also understand by help of it what forces were at 
work behind the sad face of the man who was yet to answer 
effectively the fierce questionings of his own despairing cry. 
The world of 1850 was not the world of to-day. There have 
been vast convulsions and wonderful changes in every part of 
it since then, and every change and every convulsion which 
has taken place began in the hearts of men who had in some 
measure received, like Lincoln, the priceless gifts of thinking 
and seeing and suffering. 

Men who heard him at times — men like Herndon, who was 
a sincere Abolitionist — could and did wonder why the man 
who felt so deeply and spoke so strongly did not at once break 
out into some species of agitation. Other men were so doing 
here and there, and were bravely performing the work of 
pioneers in the cause of freedom. Lincoln also was doing the 
work allotted him, and his zealous friends were unable to see 
that his time for something different had not yet come. He 



THE COMING CONFLICT. 143 

understood, rather tlian saw, the unadvisability of present ac- 
tivity on his part. It was nothing to him that other men, such 
as in after-time mistook themselves and their frantic outcries 
for causes instead of effervescent effects, were all the while 
hurhng anathemas at any who might dare await the coming 
fullness of time. It had not come, and he would bravely wait. 

The great mass of American citizens went somewhat stolidly 
on with their plowing and planting, their merchandise, their 
politics, — such as they thouglit they could understand, — and 
their religions, such as they had. 

The fullness of time came, and with it the man who had 
ripened with it for the work of the great harvest ; but even 
now, after the work is done and he has passed on out of the 
field, there still remain those who look back to the year 1850, 
and even later, and try to persuade themselves and others: 
" At that time Mr. Lincoln's mind was not made up. He was 
no further advanced then than we ourselves were." 

By others somewhat this sort of comment has been freely 
made : " He and the other pohticians were ready enough to reap 
the harvest we had sown and tilled for them. The new poHti- 
cal world was created by us and we put into it the men, like 
Lincohi, whom we manufactured out of the dust of the eai-th. 
We blew into them all the life they ever had." 

Mr. Lincoln's determination to abstain from current poUtics 
was so firm, that when in that very year the nomination for 
Congress was again offered him, he positively and pubUcly de- 
clined it. It is very possible that he could have been elected, 
as all personal opposition to him had ebbed away. But there 
was httle to be then accomplished at Washington which could 
not just as well be done by other men. Moreover, the sacri- 
fice of professional and domestic interests and ties would then 
have been greater than before. 

His father's health began to fail towards the close of 1850, 
and Mr. Lincoln took care that his last days should be provided 
for in every needful way. It was also just before the birth of 



144 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

little " Tad," and there were other reasons which forbade a 
prolonged absence from Springfield. 

As for Thomas Lincoln, it is pleasant to know how tenderly 
and kindly the poor old shiftless Kentucky ne'er-do-well was 
cared for npon his death-bed by his faithful son. Mr. Lincoln 
wi'ote to his ste]3-brother, John Johnston, a letter which closes 
with the following sentences : 

" I sincerely hojDe father may yet recover his health ; but at 
all events tell him to remember to call upon and confide in our 
great and good and merciful Maker, who will not turn away 
from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of the sparrow 
and numbers the hairs of our heads ; and He will not forget 
the dying man who puts his trust in Him. Say to him that, 
if we could meet now, it is doubtful whether it would not be 
more painful than pleasant ; but that if it be his lot to go now, 
he will soon have a joyful meeting with loved ones gone be- 
fore, and where the rest of us, through the mercy of God, hope 
ere long to join them." 

These utterances, too, may well stand as an answer to those 
who tried to make the thoughtful man responsible for the raw 
infidehty of the thinking youth. This faith in the fatherhood 
of God, and his later manifestations of positive beUef in the 
brotherhood of man, are not far from obedience to the great 
commandments on which, said Jesus, "hang all the law and 
the prophets." 

After his father's death, as before, Mr. Lincoln continued 
his kind oflices to his step-mother, and to other members of 
the family, although some of the latter took a course in life 
which reflected small credit upon her or him. He probably 
did as much for all of them as was in any manner well or 
worth while. 




'/LC^^^€<i^y' 



From rhotograJ>h taken immediately after Nomination, iS6o. 



A GEE AT AWAKENING. 145 



CHAPTER XX. 

A GREAT AWAKENING. 

Colonization— The Kansas-Nebraska Act— The Barriers Broken Down- 
Lincoln's First Great Speech— Stephen A. Douglas— Growth of a New 
Party — Discovering a Leader — An Oratorical Match. 

In July, 1852, Mr. Lincoln was selected by the citizens of 
Springfield to deliver a funeral oration upon Henry Clay. He 
performed the pubhc duty allotted him, but with an absence 
of enthusiasm for his old poHtical idol which occasioned re- 
mark. It need not have surprised any who knew him well. 
He had that upon his mind which forbade his rising to any un- 
usual height of eloquence in deahng with the memory of a 
statesman whose sun had set behind the clouds of " compro- 
mise" of the slavery question. The only noteworthy feature 
of the address is its beMdldered agreement ^vith Mr. Clay's 
idea of the colonization of the black people in Africa as a pos- 
sible remedy for existing evils. Clearly foreseeing the awful 
perils into which the country was drifting ; discovering no 
possibihty of emancipation upon the soil of the United States ; 
regarding the continued presence of such a population as a 
danger to the future welfare of the whites, both of the North 
and South — all the threatening images with which his inner 
thought was turning goaded him on in a search which seemed 
hopeless. In such a state of mind, the vain chimera of a 
wholesale transportation of the apparent cause of the coming 
strife and misery to other lands took hold of him with a 
power which would have been impossible had any alternative 
proposition been presented. It clung to him for years with a 
pertinacity which is not at all wonderful, but which is not easy 



146 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of explanation to minds which have not had the same problems 
to deal with. 

During the same year Mr. Lincoln made a speech at Spring- 
field, in commentary npon one delivered by Stephen A. Doug- 
las at Richmond, Virginia. Like other ephemeral utterances 
it has little interest now. 

The minor features of the slow movement of national poli- 
tics in the years preceding the great colhsion have passed out 
of sight. It was regarded by some, at tliat time, as an act of pre- 
sumption for Mr. Lincoln to assume such an attitude of equal- 
ity with " the little giant of Illinois." 

To Mr. Douglas, however, the whole country was soon to be 
indebted for an act of servility to the slave-power which set 
free the forces for a time bound down by the compromises of 
1850. The bill afterwards known in history as " The Kansas- 
IsTebraska Act," in its complete form, was reported to the Sen- 
ate of the United States on the 23d of January, 1854, by Mr. 
Douglas, as Chairman of the Committee on Territories. 

The Act provided for the creation of the Territories of Kan- 
sas and JS'ebraska out of the immense area then bearing the 
latter name. It removed the safeguards and ignored the 
solemn compact provided by the Missouri Compromise, and 
left the people of these or any other Territories, or a tempo- 
rary majority vote of them, empowered to admit or reject 
human slavery, subject only to the Constitution of the United 
States, in which there was then no specific barrier. In no other 
way could the impending peril have been placed before the 
public in a shape so easily understood. All mere theories were 
out of date in an instant, when the propagandists of bondage 
said to the nation : " Here are two new States to be organized. 
They must be Slave-States. "We have broken down the fence 
agreed upon between you and us. You shall not put up any 
more." 

The people as a whole were slow in dividing upon the new 
issue so presented. The Democratic party, ]^orth and South, 



A GREAT AWAKENING. 147 

■was wonderfully vigorous and in perfect discipline, and it held 
the Federal government, with all its machinery of administrar 
tion, in a grasp of iron. The Whig party was in process of 
disintegration; dying because it had nothing to live for. 
There was no existing political organization capable of taking 
np the challenge of the South. The chiefs of the latter were 
utterly astounded by the roar of surprise, fury, dismay, of 
helpless, aimless, mobhke wrath which swept the North like a 
tidal wave from the Atlantic westward. 

Mr. Douglas was as much astonished as were his Southern 
colleagues. He finished his Senatorial work in Washington, 
and hurried to Illinois to try and persuade the people that his 
bill did not mean what they all said it did. At Chicago the 
angry multitude refused to listen to him, and he went on to 
Springfield. 

The State Fair was held in that city in October, drawing to- 
gether a vast throng from all parts of the State, thoroughly 
representing its best population ; and before that assembly the» 
Senator pleaded in his own defense. 

There was one man in Springfield to whom the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, the repeal of the IVIissouri Compromise, the re-open- 
ing of the slavery question, had come as a new lease of life. 
As by one voice the duty of answering Douglas was assigned 
to Mr. Lincoln, and he may be truly said to have made his 
first great political speech that day. All the smothered fire of 
his brooding days and nights and years burst forth in a power 
and with an eloquence which even those who knew him best 
had not so much as hoped for. 

There was no report made of that speech. Not a sentence 
of it had been reduced to writing beforehand. He spoke all 
that was in his heart to speak, and when he sat down there 
had been a new party bom in the State of Illinois, and he was 
its father, its head, its unquestioned and unquestionable repre- 
sentative and leader. 

Mr. Douglas briefly and vainly attempted a reply, ending by 



148 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

a promise of anotlier speecli in the evening ; but Ms defeat had 
been altogether too complete. He made no second appearance 
before the assembly which had listened while Mr. Lincoln tore 
his fallacies to shreds and held his personal political record up 
to their scorn and ridicule. The evening was occupied instead 
by a number of the best orators in the State, both Whigs and 
Democrats, enforcing the great lesson of the day and carrying 
forward the work which Lincoln had so well begun. 

The elements for the formation of a new party were abun- 
dant in every ISTorthem State, and they were aggregating ra- 
pidly, but they were yet confused, unorganized, chaotic. There 
was great intensity of feeling among all the varied and discon- 
nected constituencies, but no formulated expression had been 
agreed upon. So far as men were able to typify the ideas and 
purposes to which they were opposed, these were temporarily 
embodied in Stephen A. Douglas rather than in any Southern 
leader. It was a distinction of which he afterwards laboriously 
and painfully divested himseK. But he wore it long enough 
to serve the purpose for which it was given him. 

A part of this had been abeady well served. Publicly, be- 
fore a vast jury of his fellow-citizens, as the champion of his 
cause he had met and been vanquished by the man who thence- 
forward was to express in his own voice and personahty, and 
at last to officially represent and direct, the national will and 
soul, aroused by proslavery aggression. The service was not 
fully performed that day, for afterwards Mr. Douglas was to 
act as a pointing hand, concentrating the eyes of men upon 
Mr. Lincoln, so that they might know their leader and form 
column behind him as he went forward. 

Much good work for freedom had already been done upon 
the floors of Congress, in House and Senate ; much in the press 
and in the pulpit ; more in talks by firesides and in neighbor- 
hood gatherings. The fire passed swiftly from man to man. 
Had it not been so there would have been no party to organize. 
It is, nevertheless, a matter of historical record that the exist- 



A GREAT AWAKENING. 149 

ence of the Republican party, unnamed but living, dates from 
the first collision at Springfield of Stephen A. Douglas with the 
man who for forty-seven years of toilsome development had 
unwittingly prepared himseK for that hour and for the long 
struggle which was to follow. 

The other orators of the day, the crowd that sympathized, 
admired, applauded, saw little more than the fact that " Old 
Abe has made a splendid speech. "We did not know it was in 
him." 

Some of them also perceived the evident fact that whenever 
Mr. Douglas or any other champion of the cause he repre- 
sented should require to be met again, there could be no doubt 
as to the popular choice of a man to meet liim. Kot that Mr. 
Lincoln was a great man or the equal of Mr. Douglas. He 
was too near a neighbor for that, and not known much outside 
of the State. Nothing great about him. They knew him. 
Had heard him tell stories. Still, he was a sort of growing 
man, and he could make a right down good speech. A man 
with a sadly defective education. 

There was a reason why Mr. Lincoln did not attend the 
gathering of the people in the evening after his great Spring- 
field speech. The extreme Abolitionists, blind to the meaning 
of that which was passing before their eyes, had announced a 
separate meeting of their own. They had planned, moreover, 
that the triumphant orator of the day should be there present 
and be forced to identify himself vrith. their faction. He was 
plainly an Abolitionist in heart and why should he not become 
one in name ? 

It was a thoroughly sincere and honest piece of imwisdom. 
But even so ardent an antislavery man as Mr. Hemdon saw 
the danger to his friend and to all the interests at stake, and he 
hastened to give warning. He himself says : 

" I rushed to Lincoln and said, ' Lincoln, go home ; take Bob 
and the buggy and leave the county ; go quickly ; right off ; 
and never mind the order of your going.' He stayed away till 
all conventions and fairs were over." 



150 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

It was the announced purpose of Mr. Douglas to speak be- 
tween that time and the election at various large towns 
throughout the State, and Mr. Lincoln was requested to follow 
and reply to him, according to the prevailing Western custom. 
The request was united in by prominent men of the three fac- 
tions, Whigs, Abolitionists, and Anti-Nebraska Democrats, 
which were already coalescing to form the new party and did 
not know it. The duty was promptly accepted by Mr. Lincoln, 
and the two leaders met at Peoria in a second encounter. The 
results of this destroyed all wilHngness on the part of Douglas 
for any further trial of strength. An agreement, afterwards 
somewhat departed from, was entered into, by the terms of 
which both combatants retired from the canvass. It was a 
political capitulation. 

Mr. Lincoln's Peoria speech was printed and widely read. 
By it his followers were supplied with forcible verbal formulas 
for the expression of their thoughts and feelings, and all the 
local speakers of the faU campaign were given a magazine of 
fresh material to draw upon. 

Mr. Douglas, prior to his arrangement for withdrawal, had 
made an appointment to speak at Lacon, and Mr. Lincoln went 
to meet him there, but refrained from speaking when he found 
his opponent disabled by illness. On his return home he 
learned that his friends, represented by Mr. Wilham Jayne, 
had announced him in the Journal as a candidate for the 
State Legislature, and that Mrs. Lincoln, well knowing her 
husband's views and wishes, had called upon the editor, Mr. 
Francis, and procured the removal of the announcement from 
the paper. Of course Mr. Jayne went to see Mr. Lincoln on 
his arrival, and he thus relates the story of it : 

" I went to see him in order to get his consent to run. This 
was at his house. He was then the saddest man I ever saw ; 
the gloomiest. He walked up and down the floor, almost 
crying, and to all my persuasions to let his name stand in the 
paper he said, ' ]^o, I can't. You don't know all. I say you 



A GREAT AWAKENING. 151 

don't begin to know one half, and that's enough.' I did, how- 
ever, go and have his name reinstated, and there it stood. He 
and Logan were elected by about six hundred majoritj." 

There is a wonderful simplicity about this whole transaction 
of wife and husband and devoted friends. Little enough the 
others knew, — unless it may have been to some extent known 
to his wife, — the awful struggle of which the external symp- 
toms so puzzled them. 

They seem to have sagely decided, although with some won- 
der that Lincoln should feel so badly about it, that he had 
serious doubts of the advisability of going to the Legislature 
just then. His very soul was wrung to agony ; they could see 
that ; but he never took the small trouble to have liis candidacy 
denied. He was elected; and then, as soon as the Legislature 
came together, he resigned. 

There was an obvious reason for the latter step. Mr. Lin- 
coln was well known to be a candidate for United States Sena- 
tor, in place of James Shields, whose term was expiring. The 
latter had voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Bill with Mr. Doug- 
las, and the opponents of the hated law were in the majority if 
their several factions could be induced to act in concert. Some 
other man than Shields would surely be chosen by the Legis- 
lature, and Mr. Lincoln's sense of propriety forbade him to sit 
as a member of the body which was to act upon his claims as a 
candidate. 

He had a strong desire to go to the Senate, there to continue 
the war he had so well begun. He was no prophet, and had 
none to tell him that, for a time at least, private life was a bet- 
ter place for him than the dignified assembly which has been 
shrewdly described as " the graveyard of Presidential candi- 
dates." It was necessary that he should remain a man of the 
people, among the people ; studying the course of events bet- 
ter than that could be done in the heated atmosphere of the 
Capitol. It was equally needful that he should keep himself 
untrammeled by the fetters of ofiicial responsibility, and that 



152 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

he should avoid the sure peril of injudicious utterances in the 
fierce debates that were soon to come, and to which the country 
was to listen as it had never Hstened before. 

More than all was it needful that the forces preparing and 
growing within him should have two years of accumulation, 
rather than exhaustion. 

On the 8th of February, 1855, the Legislature took in hand 
the election of a United States Senator. It was found that 
Gen. Shields, and after him ex-Governor Mattison, to whom 
the Democrats transferred their strength, had forty-one votes ; 
while the anti-Democratic majority were divided, giving to 
Mr. Lincoln forty-five, Mr. Trumbull five, and Mr. Koerner 
two. Forty-seven were required to elect, and repeated ballotings 
brought no change in favor of either of the leading candidates. 
Then came signs of danger that some of Mr. Trumbull's sup- 
porters, who were opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska measure, but 
were Democrats all, and old political opponents of Mr. Lin- 
coln, might relapse into their former party allegiance. Mr. 
Lincoln's advice was asked and given. He said without a mo- 
ment's hesitation : " You ought to drop me and go for Trum- 
bull. That is the only way you can defeat Mattison." 

His friend. Judge Logan, urged that he should continue to 
be a candidate, but was firmly answered : 

" If I do, you will lose both Trumbull and myself, and I 
think the cause, in this case, is to be j)i"eferred to men." 

The Whigs obeyed, in bitterness of spirit, and Lyman Trum- 
bull was chosen Senator instead of Abraham Lincoln. The act 
of the latter did more than send an able and patriotic man to 
the Senate. It retained the anti-Nebraska Democratic element 
in the new party, in that and in other States. It kept Lincoln 
at home in Illinois, but in charge of all further consolidation of 
jarring elements, and with the threads of all control more 
firmly in his hands than ever. His neighbors had trusted his 
integrity and recognized his capacity. They were now com- 
pelled to acknowledge and to honor his rare unselfishness. 



A GREAT AWAEENmG. 153 

Tbe sacrifice had cost liim something, but the nnexpected re- 
ward was promptly and lojallj paid him. 

It was an additional recompense, shortly afterwards, to find 
how bravely and how well Senator Trumbull was performino- 
the high duty so masnanimously surrendered to him. His 
very presence in the Senate-chamber was a visible warning to 
the slavery propagandists that their long control of the Demo- 
cratic party of the JSTorth had been broken forever. 



X54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE NEW PAKTT. 

Bleeding Kansas — A Watchful Friend — Trapping a Trapper — The Bloom- 
ington Convention — General Apathy — The Voice of Faith, 

Of the two Territories created by the Kansas-Kebraska Bill, 
the former was manifestly the more nearly ready for admis- 
sion into the Union as a State. Upon the soil of Kansas, 
therefore, the contending political forces had already begun to 
pour themselves, in a tide of extraordinary immigration from 
the older States. The lawless and often bloody scenes enacting 
there were doing much to convince the nation that the days of 
mere argument, and even of mere balloting, were passing away. 
A most peaceful generation, born and nurtured in the hatred 
of all violence, was undergoing a process of habituation to the 
idea of brute force as a tribunal of final ajDpeal. 

The sympathies of the anti-slavery men of Illinois were 
strongly appealed to on behaK of their downtrodden brethren 
of Kansas. In 1856, not long after the Senatorial election, an 
association was formed of the more zealous Abolitionists, with 
the view of emigrating, armed and equipped, to what was prac- 
tically the seat of civil war. Among these was Mr, Hem- 
don, and his purpose could not long be concealed from his 
wiser, cooler, more far-seeing law-partner. By some means 
Mr. Lincoln got the hot-heads together, and addressed them in 
the name of peace, law, order, and sound common-sense. He 
not only convinced them that their purpose was wrong, but 
that it was foohsh, and persuaded them to stay at home. He 
joined them, however, in sending pecuniary and other contri- 



TEE NEW PABTT. 155 

butions to tLe assistance of tlie actual Kansas settlers wlio were 
Buffering in consequence of the political disorders. 

He himself had been too wise, in his most earnest utter- 
ances, to avow himself an extreme AboHtionist. In his mind, 
the country had other interests than those of the black man. 
The future of the white race was also entitled to some consid- 
eration. The best good of all forbade indifference to the wel- 
fare of any part. 

The several factions into which the opposition to the con- 
trolling party was still divided in Illinois were in a state of 
seeming blindness to their approaching consolidation ; but Mr. 
Lincoln was not. Each coterie put forth eager but vain efforts 
to secure the adhesion to their number of the man who con- 
tained in liimself more power than any or all of them. They 
compelled him to exercise great care. So reticent was he, so 
cautious not to make any answer which should seem to identify 
his name with any clique or segment, that even Mr. Herndon 
felt himself called upon to labor with liis friend in the interest 
of the cause of freedom. lie lent him antislavery books and 
papers ; read him extracts from speeches and lectures ; strove 
in every way to arouse in him a more aggressive hatred of 
slavery and a disposition to fight against it. Mr. Lincoln might 
weU have said to him, as he had said to Mr. Jajme : " You 
don't begin to know the half of it, and that's enough." 

He said very little, however, and his friend persisted in con- 
sidering him unsettled in his political mind. 

The radicals of every name were shortly summoned to a 
State convention to be held at Bloomington, and a " call " was 
circulated in Springfield for a county convention for the selec- 
tion of delegates. There still remained a curious doubt as to 
the course Mr. Lincoln would pursue. He was absent when 
the " call " was passed around for signatures, but Mr. Herndon, 
zealously determined to make him commit himself, signed his 
name to it for him. Nothing could add to Mr. Hemdon's own 
account" of the transaction and its consequences. He says : 



156 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

" I determined to make liim take a stand, if he would not do 
it willingly, as be might have done, as he was naturally in- 
clined Abolitionward. Lincoln was absent when the call was 
signed and circulated here. I signed Mr, Lincoln's name with- 
out authority ; had it published in the Journal. John T. 
Stuart was keeping his eye on Lincoln, with the view of keep- 
ing him on his side — the totally dead conservative side. Mr. 
Stuart saw the published call and grew mad ; rushed into my 
office. Seemed mad and horrified, and said to me, ' Sir, did 
Mr. Lincoln sign that Abolition call which is published this 
morning ? ' I answered, ' Mr. Lincoln did not sign that call.' 
' Did Mr. Lincoln authorize you to sign it ? ' said Mr. Stuart. 
' 1^0, he never authorized me to sign it.' ' Then do you know 
that you have ruined Mr. Lincoln T 'I did not know that I 
had ruined Mr. Lincoln ; did not intend to do so ; thought he 
was a made man by it ; that the time had come when conser- 
vatism was a crime and a blunder.' ' You, then, take the re- 
sponsibility of your acts, do you V ' I do, most emphatically.' 
However, I sat down and wrote to Mr. Lincoln, who was then 
in Pekin or Tremont, possibly at court. He received my let- 
ter and instantly repHed, either by letter or telegraph, — most 
likely by letter, — that he adopted in toto what I had done, and 
promised to meet the radicals — Lovejoy and such-like men — 
among us," 

All this is as much as to say that they thought it was need- 
ful to entrap Mr. Lincoln, and this is the way in which the 
large game was caught and caged. 

There was, however, something of a surprise in store for the 
successful trappers. When the State convention came together 
at Bloomington, it was found to comprise strong conservative 
as well as ultra-progressive elements. It was precisely the 
conclave for which Mr. Lincoln had long been waiting, and the 
opportunity had come for him to dehver another decisive 
speech. He was undeniably the man of the occasion, and 
others were waiting to hear from him. 



THE NEW PARTY. 157 

It was pretty well understood that his utterance would be 
regarded as the voice of the convention, and would be, to all 
intents and purposes, the " platform" upon which it would be 
compelled to stand. So to speak, he had taken possession of 
the trap wherein his wise friends had caged him and was 
calmly proceeding to capture the trappers. 

-The speech he made has been declared the ablest of his 
strictly political addresses. In many respects it is certainlythe 
most interesting of all. He was able, for the first time, to 
free his arguments from many of the meshes formerly cast 
around them by existing laws, by " compromises," and by ex- 
pressed or impUed social contracts. Mr. Douglas and his 
friends in Congress had done this much for him and for free- 
dom. 

The new party, thus beginning to assume organic existence, 
first assumed the name of " Eepublican" at this particular Con- 
vention at Bloomington, Illinois, and it has been common to 
say that it was " bom" then and there. This is simply a con- 
fusion of ideas, for the young pohtical organism had already 
left its cradle and was advanced far along the line of prepai-a- 
tion for the severe work of early manhood. There is a differ- 
ence between mere ceremonies of christening and other vital- 
izing processes of creation. 

Apart from the more glowing paragraphs of ]\Ir. Lincoln's 
speech, the proceedings at Bloomington were apparently con- 
servative, and the extremists were but little pleased with them. 

The " platform" actually adopted did not go far enough, and 
yet it went to the limit of what Mr. Lincoln believed the peo- 
ple were ready to accept. It went so much further than that 
in fact, and the whole undertaking had in it so much of au- 
dacity, of presumptuous rebellion against the existing order 
of tilings, of an advance into unknown and perilous ground, 
that the report of it was received with general apathy and was 
followed by a mysteriously deep and timid reaction. So strong 
in the minds of men was the doubt as to what course they 



158 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

should pursue, that the entire voting population may be said 
to have held its political breath. About five days after the 
adjournment of the convention, a public meeting was called in 
Springfield to " ratify" the action taken. The county court- 
house, where the meeting was to be held, was well lighted ; 
the usual posters on all the fences had announced the meeting 
and the name of the distinguished orator who was to address 
it ; a band of music paraded the streets to drum up enthusiasm, 
and the bells were rung. The net result of all these praise- 
worthy efforts is reported by Mr. Herndon, who, with Mr. Lin- 
coln and a man named John Pain, were all the multitude the 
occasion brought together : 

" When Mr. Lincoln came into the court-house, he came 
with a sadness and a sense of the ludicrous on his face. He 
walked to the stand, mounted it with a kind of mocking, — 
mirth and sadness all combined, — and said : ' Gentlemen, this 
meeting is larger than I knew it would be. I knew that 
Herndon and myseK would come, but I did not know that 
any one else would be here ; and yet another has come, — you, 
John Pain. These are sad times and seem out 'of joint. All 
seems dead, dead, dead ; but the age is not yet dead : it liveth 
as sure as our Maker liveth. Under all this seeming want of 
life and motion the world does move, nevertheless. Be hope- 
ful. And now let us adjourn, and appeal to the people.' " 

He made many longer speeches in the course of his life, but 
not one that was braver or better. He well understood the 
true nature of the temporary paralysis of the new pohtical 
movement, and had measured the forces whose irrepressible 
activities forbade its long continuance. Nevertheless, it re- 
quired a good deal of faith to stand up in an empty hall and so 
address Mr. Herndon and John Pain. 



TEE COMING MAN. 159 



CHAPTEK XXn. 



THE COMESTG MAN. 



The Fremont Campaign — Lincoln for Vice-President — The Southern Threat 
— Days of Preparation — Buchanan's Term — One Story Higher — A 
Murder Case. 

The varied elements of the new party, in all those parts of 
the country wherein it could be permitted to exist, were now 
rapidly coalescing, but did not yet call themselves Eepublicans. 
A " national convention" was held at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 
in February, 1856, but adjourned without making nominations. 
A second convention met at Philadelphia, on the 17th of June, 
and nominated John C. Fremont for President and William 
L. Dayton for Vice-President. The supporters of these candi- 
dates very generally concealed their hesitation as to their future 
poHtical course by styling themselves vaguely " The People's 
Party." 

At the Philadelphia convention, when the IlHnois delega- 
tion, in its turn, was called upon to present a nomination for 
the office of Vice-President of the United States, its chairman 
announced the name of Abraham Lincoln. When the ballots 
were counted, he was found to be the second on the list of 
candidates, having received 110 votes. Mr, Dayton had 289 
votes, and 180 ballots were distributed among many other 
names. 

Mr. Lincoln had not yet had time to think much of his own 
political prospects in connection with the new party. Position 
and power had come to him more rapidly than he was aware. 
So Uttle did he know how strong a hold he was taking upon 
the minds of men that the honor thus given him came as a 



160 ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 

complete surprise. He was attending court in Urbana, Cham- 
paign County, wlien the telegraph brought the news that Day- 
ton had been nominated, but that " Mr. Lincoln received 110 
votes." 

" That must be our Lincoln," haK doubtfully remarked some 
of his friends in his hearing ; but he said, " 'No, it could not 
be : it must have been the great Lincoln from Massachusetts." 
There was, indeed, a prominent citizen of that State who 
bore the same name. 

All that was left of the old "Whig party nominated " Fill- 
more and Donelson." The Democrats nominated " Buchanan 
and Breckinridge," with a positive assurance of success. The 
campaign began at once, and Mr. Lincoln went into it with all 
his energy, as a candidate for Presidential Elector of the State 
of Illinois, on the Fremont and Dayton ticket. In so doing, 
he was, of necessity, brought before the entire country as the 
immediate antagonist and, as it proved, intellectual superior of 
of the Democratic champion, Stephen A. Douglas, a man of 
national reputation, Mr. Lincoln's closest friends and warmest 
admirers in Illinois had but inadequate ideas of the extent to 
which, in part or in whole, the speeches of the man whom they 
regarded as their excellent and, in some things, very capable 
neighbor were read by the people of other States. They Httle 
guessed how widely and deeply the foundations of his repute 
and power were building through all the busy days of that 
great though seemingly unsuccessful campaign. 

Any discussing of pending questions, as then formulated, 
may be set aside as belonging to the political history of the 
times rather than to the biography of Abraham Lincoln. Not 
so, however, with the fact that the Democratic press and ora- 
tors, North and South, from beginning to end of the campaign 
of 1856, held up before the people the red specters of dis- 
union and civil war, to deter all timid men from opposing the 
onward march of slavery. It was not a mere threat, and Mr. 
Lincoln at no time treated it as such, but discussed it seriously. 



THE COMING MAN. 161 

He repeatedly argued the wicked unreason of regarding tlie 
election of the anti-slavery candidates as an excuse for the 
commission of the proposed crime. 

He clearly perceived the reality of the coming peril, even 
while he publicly declared its devilish folly. His fits of de- 
spondency came upon him more frequently than ever, and 
more darkly. There was no suddenness whatever in this ripen- 
ing of his understanding and the appreciation of the forces in 
colKsion. It had come with the growth of his personal convic- 
tions of duty and with his painfully labored study of the 
measures wisely to be taken or avoided, the words well to be 
uttered or left unspoken, and of the slow processes through 
which the general popular mind was unwittingly preparing to 
meet the wrath to come. 

It has been only too common a stupidity for men to look upon 
Mr. Lincoln as a species of political miracle; a prodigy of 
sudden sagacity and power ; blindly selected from among an 
unknown multitude by the chance-medley results of a political 
lottery at a convention ; swiftly expanding to colossal knowl- 
edge and wisdom under the furnace-heat of cii'cumstances. 
Sound common-sense and healthy human reason have no faith 
in such irrational marvels. 

Every day of his life, prior to the Fremont campaign, had 
been a preparation for it. Every hour of that intense excite- 
ment was surcharged with the same close, penetrating, unfor- 
getting study that he had given to the charcoal scores on his 
Indiana shingle ; to the law-books he devoured during his hot 
walks from Springfield to IS'ew Salem ; or to the EucHd or 
Shakespeare he carried with him in his borrowed buggy ai'ound 
the Sangamon three-montlis' circuit. 

Every corner of his soul was a busy workshop, with no open 
windows through which other men could look in and see what 
was going on. While others were discontentedly waiting and 
wondering what would be the end of it all, he was aiding them 
to wait with better patience. At the same time he was saga- 



162 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

ciously aiding tliem in getting ready for such action as might 
be required when the hour should come to wait no longer. 
When that hour came, it was only because of their own sur- 
prise at what he said and did that they dimly imagined he 
must also be astonishing himself. 

The results of the November voting were precisely what all 
but a few over-sanguine and inex23erienced politicians had ex- 
pected. Mr. Buchanan was elected President of the United 
States, and the Democratic party seemed to be settled more 
firmly than ever in its long-held place of power. True, there 
was a strong and j)ersistent minority of Eejiublicans in each 
House of Congress. Their numbers were growing, and they 
were soon to be in control of the Lower House. They had al- 
ready carried one of their number to the Speaker's chair, but 
with an ill-disciplined and somewhat uncertain support for him 
after he was put there. The assumption of the name " Eepub- 
licans" by the new party was progressive, as the several ele- 
ments and factions were from day to day absorbed by it. 
The newspaper reporters and editors aided the process by a 
continual application of the term. 

The hot debates of the sessions now to follow would weld 
that fragmentary mass upon the floor of the House into the 
compactness of hammered u^on. Already the watchful eyes of 
the Southern leaders were noting the menacing fact that the 
new party lost no inch of vantage-ground once fairly won. 

Mr. Lincoln's law-practice was now larger than ever before, 
and was fairly lucrative, although his fees were never such as 
prominent Eastern counsel were in the habit of receiving. His 
first really heavy fee, of five thousand dollars for services ren- 
dered the Illinois Central Railroad Company, was actually dis- 
puted by that corporation as extortionate, although they would 
have paid it instantly to any leader of the New York bar. Mr. 
Lincohi brought suit for his claim, and a " jury of lawyers'* 
affirmed its justice before it was paid him. He was living in 
a good but very unobtrusive style. His house had grown to a 



• TEE COMING MAN. 163 

Bufficient size under the bands of Ms wife rather than his own. 
During one of his long professional absences, she procured the 
building of a larger and handsomer second story, with a new 
roof and a coat of fresh paint over all. On her husband's re- 
turn, he is said to have paused for a moment in front of the 
unexpected transformation, and then to have jocosely hailed a 
passer-by : 

" Stranger, can you tell me where Lincoln lives ? He used 
to live here." 

It was entirely impossible for even a busy lawyer to keep 
out of politics altogether during the year and a half immedi- 
ately following the inauguration of President Buchanan. The 
course of events in Kansas and in Congress was such as daily 
to fan the popular excitement. All men were beginning to 
discern for themselves the exact nature and direction of their 
moral and intellectual leanings. The greater number were 
rising toward the high rank of persons having comdctions, 
purposes, and some knowledge of public affairs. Below these 
was the swarming mob of those who can feel but who cannot 
think. These latter, like their betters, were waiting for a 
leader and a plainly uttered " order of the day." Both were 
to come in due time, for the one was formulating the other 
and was patiently awaiting the right time for its utterance. 

During the summer of the year 1857 a man named Metzgar 
was murdered at a camp-meeting in Mason County, Illinois, 
and two men, named James II. Norris and AVilliam D. Arm- 
strong, were accused of the crime. The former was tried in 
Mason County, convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to 
eight ycfft-s of prison-life. The popular feeling against Arm- 
strong was so bitter that it was doubted if a fair trial could be 
given him near the scene of the murder. A "change of 
venue" was therefore taken to Beardstown, in Cass County, 
where he was tried for murder, in the spring of 1858. 

Armstrong was a mere "rough" and wretchedly poor; but 
he had not committed the murder he was accused of. He 



164 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

was a son of that Jack Armstrong of Clary's Grove, near l^ew 
Salem, whose affection Lincoln had gained by shaking him at 
arm's length. When a baby he had been rocked in Ms cradle 
by his father's tall friend, while his mother, Hannah Arm- 
strong, attended to other household duties. At one time Lin- 
coln had been almost a member of the family. 

Hannah was old now, and she had no money to pay lawyers, 
but she had faith in her friend, and wrote him an account of 
her trouble. Mr. Lincoln at once rephed that he would under- 
take the defense, but the heartbroken old woman managed to 
travel to Springfield that she might tell him all she knew 
about the matter, and win his honest help as well as his 
sympathy. 

It seemed a hopeless case, for the evidence against Arm- 
strong was clear and positive and not at all circumstantial. It 
appeared to be inevitable that he would be convicted not of 
manslaughter but of murder, and that he would surely be 
hanged for his crime, and as the principal offender. 

Mr. Lincoln appeared in court on the day of trial, but gave 
over the verbal management of the witnesses to his colleague 
in the case, Mr. Walker, who had already made a study of it. 
He himself did little more than to suggest questions and 
keenly watch for the way of escape which no other man in the 
court-room believed could be discovered. 

The proof of murder was complete. Good witnesses testi- 
fied to having seen Armstrong commit the deed, by the light 
of a nearly full moon shining high in a cloudless heaven. Until 
Mr. Lincoln arose to speak, the prisoner at the bar stood prac- 
tically convicted, and the jury could have given against him a 
verdict of " guilty" without leaving their seats. 

The evidence, however, was only too perfect. It was too 
nicely fitted and adjusted, and when taken up in the hands of 
a master it came to pieces and could be put together again in 
another shape so as to show that the murder was not commit- 
ted then and there by that man, but elsewhere, afterwards, and 



TUE COMING MAN. 165 

by other hands. The speaker went on step by step until he 
was ready to call upon the clerk of the court for an almanac 
which he had previously placed in his hands for the purpose. 
Then he asked the jury to note the fact that at the alleged 
hour of the murder, instead of the splendor of moonlight 
sworn to by the prosecuting witnesses, there was no moon at 
all and darkness reigned. 

Court, jury, lawyers, burst into a roar of astonished laughter ; 
but the moment it died away Mr. Lincohi launched out into a 
speech which has been described by all who heard it as won- 
derfully eloquent. All said that it saved the life of Arm- 
strong, without reference to the testimony so skillfully pulled 
to pieces, by its touching description of his own early struggles 
and the kindness then shown him by the now widowed mother 
of the prisoner at the bar. He beheved the young man inno- 
cent, and he made the jury beheve so with him. There were 
tears in his voice and in his eyes, however, while he talked of 
those old days of hardship and toil and privation, and of the 
simple, rough, kindly-hearted prairie people with whom he had 
shared them. It was a noble appeal, full of pathos, argument, 
genius, eloquence, persuasive power. More than all this is 
such an utterance of value in the study of his life and char- 
acter, by the revelation it affords of his own perpetual con- 
sciousness of the level from wliich he had chmbed and of the 
inner forces by whose operation he had arisen. In this is to 
be found one secret of his influence over men who remained 
at or near that first low level, for it is more than likely that 
the jury before him was largely composed of such men. More 
than one of his most important public utterances, as President 
of the United States, will be found on analysis to have been 
framed and worded that it might reach the understandings and 
the hearts of that vast popular jury which is but a multiphca- 
tion of country juries and the " boys" of Clary's Grove. In 
order that he might have and retain this power, he faithfully 
carried ^vith him to the very end, half mournfully, half lov- 



166 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ingly, a minute memory and understanding of all tlie events of 
liis early life, and of all tlie persons, types of character, experi- 
ences, wliicli thereby had been made his instructors. 

When the hour came for the uses of this peculiar gift, all 
the Hannah Armstrongs in the country felt free to go to him 
about their boys, and all the Bill Armstrongs north of the 
Ohio River came marching at his call in serried masses of 
" three hundred thousand more." 

Polished incapacity shuts its blind eyes unnecessarily to this 
very day, and sneers at the unseen lesson it might learn from 
the great lawyer and politician weeping genuine tears before 
a Cass County jury while he told them about the baby and the 
cradle in Jack Armstrong's log-cabin. 

Poor old Hannah came back to the congratulations of the 
crowded court-room, from which she had fled, after the speech, 
"down to Thompson's pasture," remaining there until in- 
formed of the acquittal of her son. The judge shook hands 
with her ; so did the jury ; so did Abraham Lincoln, with the 
hot tears pouring down his face. He said a few kind words 
to her then, and afterwards, when she asked him how much 
he was going to charge her and told him she was poor, he 
said : " Why, Hannah, I sha'n't charge you a cent. ISTever. 
Anything I can do for you I will do for you willingly and 
freely without charges." 



POLITICAL PROPHECT. 167 



CHAPTER XXm. 

POLITICAL PKOPHECY. 

A Rejected Leader — A Great Convention — An Historical Speech — Nomin- 
ated for United States Senator — The Joint Debates with Douglas — The 
Splitting of the Democratic Party— Beginnings of a Presidential 
Nomination— Spring 1858 to Spring 1859. 

The term for which Stephen A. Douglas had been elected 
to the Senate of the United States was now drawing to a close. 
He was, as a matter of course, a candidate for re-election ; but 
there had been a great change in his pohtical relations since 
the beginning of the Buchanan Administration, He had sev- 
ered his previous connection with the Southern chiefs of the 
Democracy and their more subservient tools at the North. 
The tremendous lessons of the Fremont campaign had not 
been lost upon him. He saw that a large and much the more 
intelligent section of the Northern Democracy would go no 
further in submission to the arrogant demands of the slave 
power. He boldly and ably put himself at their head and 
forced them to acknowledge him as their representative. 
When that was accomplished, he would willingly have led 
them bodily into the Republican camp could he have been 
assured as a reward a re-election to the Senate. 

Many sincere Republicans earnestly advocated the proposed 
coalition, but the greater number distrusted Mr, Douglas. 
They were willing to receive him as a recruit but not as a 
commanding officer. Headed by Senator Trumbull, who had 
now become fully identified with the new party, the Illi- 
nois Republicans determined to stand or fall by their existing 
organization. Having so determined, there could be but one 



168 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

voice as to who should be their standard-bearer in the battle 
before them. When, however, in April, 1858, the Democratic 
State Convention met, and, after making the usual nominations 
for State officers, added thereto an indorsement of Mr. Doug- 
las, it was again strongly urged by some EepubHcans that the 
great Democratic Senator was not only himself advancing in 
the right direction but was skillfully taking his whole party 
with him. It was declared to be the part of wisdom for the 
Republicans to name no candidate against him. They should 
rather accept and even triumphantly claim him as their own. 

The proposition was not at all unreasonable. At that day, 
Mr. Douglas was quite enough of an anti-slavery man to satisfy 
the great majority of those who called themselves Republicans 
and deemed it a kind of " radicalism" to stand upon the plat- 
form of principles they had vaguely adopted for the uses of 
the Fremont campaign. They were somewhat in ignorance 
of their own immediate future. The old battle-field, with 
which they had grown fairly familiar, was not at all the one to 
which they were now to be led, neither was it in the heart or 
brain of Mr. Douglas to marshal them for the ground upon 
which they were shortly to be arrayed. If they had accepted 
him, as proposed, he would have led them to a sure victory — 
over nothing whatever. Rejecting him, they were to be led 
to a sure defeat, followed by a surer victory, under the orders 
of a captain able to see beyond the narrow consequences of the 
present emergency. 

The Republican State Convention was called to meet at 
Springfield on the 16th of June. When gathered, the dele- 
gates, with their alternates, actually present numbered nearly a 
thousand men. They represented nearly all the old ])arties and 
fractions of parties, and were of all shades of political opinion 
and social standing. Owing to the peculiar composition of the 
population of the State of Illinois, the entire country was per- 
sonally represented in that assembly. There were men there 
from every Northern State and from many States of the 



POLITICAL PROPHECY. 169 

Sonth. An unusually large proportion were young men 
never before active in politics. It was to sucli a conclave as 
this that Mr. Lincoln deliberately prepared to present the issue 
before the country. He decided that it must be so presented 
that no man among them could fail to understand it. 

That he would be the orator of the occasion was a matter of 
course, and the prepai-ation of the speech he was to make was 
a task the performance of which is worthy of careful noting. 
It was not the work of a mere politician ; it was the thought- 
ful expression of a human Hfe. It came from his mind in 
scraps and small pieces, a sentence at a time, jotted down on 
fragments and slips of paper. Then at last these were gathered 
and put into form for delivery and for printing. All those 
detached segments had been growing in the speaker's thought 
through gloomy, toilsome years. 

On the 16th of June the Convention unanimously adopted 
the follo\ving resolution : 

"That Abraham Lincoln is our first and only choice for 
United States Senator, to fill the vacancy about to be created 
by the expiration of ^fr. Douglas's tenn of ofiice." 

They were now pledged to their chosen chief beyond recall, 
and must abide by his leadership. 

Mr. Lincoln had taken neither advice nor counsel in the pre- 
paration of his speech, but he saw the necessity of also prepar- 
ing some of his nearer friends for what it was to be. He read 
it first to Mr. Herndon, the most extreme Abolitionist of his 
intimates, and that excellent gentleman timidly asked him : 

" It is true ; but is it entirely politic to speak it or read it as 
it is written ?'' 

The question referred particularly to the key-note of the 
speech, and Mr. Lincoln replied : 

" That makes no diiference. That expression is a truth of 
all human experience, ' a house divided against itself cannot 
stand,' and ' he that runs may read.' The proposition is indis- 
putably true and has been true for more than six thousand 



170 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

years ; and — I will deliver it as it is written. I want to use 
some universally known figure, expressed in simple language 
as universally known, that may strike home to the minds of 
men in order to rouse them to the peril of the times. I would 
rather be defeated with this expression in the speech, and it 
held up and discussed before the people, than to be victorious 
without it." 

Having sounded the depths of Abolition courage through 
his friend Herndon, Mr. Lincoln proceeded to consult others, 
and finally gathered a dozen leading men in the Library Koom 
of the State House, not to ask their guidance, but to assure 
them of his purpose by reading the speech to them, and, if 
possible, to form a small nucleus of favorable public opinion 
in advance. He read and they listened, and every man present 
except Mr. Herndon, who had already caught fire and was be- 
ginning to burn pretty well, condemned the bold utterance as 
an utter destruction of the party at the hands of its captain. 
It was ia advance of the time. It was unwise. It was im- 
politic if not, indeed, untrue. 

Mr. Lincoln heard them all thoughtfully. He walked up 
and down the room ; then stood stiU and said to them : 

" Friends, I have thought about this matter a great deal ; 
have surveyed the question well from aU corners; and am 
thoroughly convinced the time has come when it should be 
uttered: and if it must be that I go down because of this 
speech, then let me go down hnked to truth, — die in the advo- 
cacy of what is right and just. This nation cannot live on in- 
justice. ' A house divided against itself cannot stand,' I say 
again and again." 

The results of his long years of study, internal strife, brood- 
ing thought, agonized wresthngs with doubt on the one side 
and ambition on the other, was that he planted his faith deep 
in a word of Jesus the Christ, and was ready to live or die by it. 
He saw that this was the way, the truth, and the life for him 
and for the nation, and aU expostulation failed to move him. 



POLITICAL PROPHECY. 171 

The speecli was delivered without modification, on the 17th 
of June, to the Convention and a dense throng of other citizens 
from all parts of the State. With the entire, colossal argument 
we have httle to do here, but the " key-note" which startled the 
nation is as follows : 

" Gentlemen of the Convention : If we could first know 
where we are and whither we are tending, we could then better 
judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far on into 
the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed ob- 
ject and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agita- 
tion. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has 
not only not ceased but has continually augmented. In my 
opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached 
and passed. ' A house di\aded against itself cannot stand.' I 
believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave 
and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved ; I do 
not expect the house to fall ; but I do expect that it will cease 
to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. 
Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread 
of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief 
that it is in course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates wiU 
push it forward till it shall become ahke lawful in all the 
States, old as well as new, North as well as South." 

No words so daring, no such unequivocal statement of the 
great problem, had yet been uttered by any man of political 
prominence and power. 

Mr. Seward had been visited with vast abuse for declaring 
" the irrepressible conflict" between freedom and slavery, but 
his boldest utterance had been philosophical feebleness com- 
pared to this. 

His work, of inestimable value, had been in the nature of a 
preparation of the pubHc mhid for the forced reception of a 
great and gloomy fact to which it had hitherto shut its ears 
and blinded its eyes. Such words as Lincoln uttered can never 
be recalled, for, being truth, they are spirit and they are life, 



172 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and they cannot die, but live forever. In other forms and 
adaptations, they apply and will be applied to any and every 
question of human right and wrong upon which, in all the 
world, a people or nation shall henceforth be divided. They 
will help all men to see and know that, in any such division, 
the fighting cannot cease but must go on to an end, whether 
men choose for themselves that they will fight for hell or 
for heaven. 

^Nevertheless, as Lincoln himseK said, in the sublimely cour- 
ageous words with which the great speech ended : 

" The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail, — if we stand 
firm we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or mis- 
takes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come." 

From the Kentucky hut and the Indiana "pole-shelter;" 
from ignorance, vice, filth, darkness, poverty; through toil 
and sorrow and suffering ; through storms of heart and soul 
which drove him mad, the germ of a great life and noble man- 
hood had expanded slowly, until this was the voice it could 
send forth to a tumultuous time, to a doubting, hesitating 
party, and to a bewildered, faint-hearted people. 

The immediate result of the speech was precisely what his 
friends had feared and prophesied. All the more conservative 
elements were horrified, and the very radicals murmured at an 
impoKtic frankness which openly invited defeat at the polls. 
There is no question that it prevented Mr. Lincoln's election 
to the Senate and sent Mr. Douglas there in his stead, at the 
end of the most remarkable personal canvass on record. They 
met in debates at prominent points all over the State. Every- 
where Mr. Lincoln proved his superiority both in intellectual 
power and in soundness of moral position, but the people were 
not yet quite ready to foUow him. He had gone on too far in 
advance of them, and they required time in which they might 
open their new-born political eyes and learn to look at realities 
and grow and think a little. 

Mr. Lamon relates that, a day or two after the delivery of 



POLITICAL PROPHECY. I73 

the speech, a Dr. Long, unconsciously representing a great 
multitude, came into Lincoln's law-office to free his mind. He 
said : 

" Well, Lincoln, that foohsh speech of yours will kill you — 
will defeat you in this contest, and probably for all offices for 
all time to come. I am sorry, sorry, — very sorry. I wish it 
was wiped out of existence. Don't you wish it, now ?" 

Mr. Lincoln dropped the pen he had been busy with, and 
turned his sad, earnest, half-contemptuous smile upon the 
mounier : 

" Well, Doctor, if I had to draw a pen across and erase my 
whole life from existence, and I had one poor gift or choice 
left as to what I should save from the wreck, I should choose 
that speech and leave it to the world unerased." 

With others he afterwards argued earnestly the wisdom and 
policy as well as the truth of that speech, both as to time and 
place, and most men of the party were shortly able to agree 
with him. 

An important result of the joint debates between Lincoln and 
Douglas was that the latter was forced into such explanations 
and to take such ground before his own constituents that he 
thereby lost all hope of regdning his broken hold upon the 
South. He was driven to the alternative of abandoning his 
ambitious design upon the Presidency or of splitting his own 
party in sunder. His subsequent choice of the latter course 
made possible the Republican triumj^h of 1860, and his tem- 
porary success in 1858 encouraged him to that detennina- 
tion. 

The popular vote in November, 1858, showed a numerical 
majority of over four thousand for the Republican ticket, but 
that did not carry with it a majority of members of the Legis- 
lature. The friends of Douglas controlled both Houses. If, 
in the heat of the struggle, Mr. Lincoln permitted himself to 
hope for a different result, he took his defeat with equanimity. 
He could not have more than dimly dreamed of the immediate 



174 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

reward in store for him, but lie had done his duty. He had 
been placed before the whole country in a strong light. He 
had fairly won a national reputation. He had proved himself 
such a leader as anxious men were waiting for. ^Nevertheless, 
those who saw him daily and believed that they knew him best 
had but a faint and fragmentary idea of the impression he had 
made, and was still making, upon others than themselves. They 
talked about him, more or less, during the winter of 1858-9, 
and they severely criticised two or three attempts he made at 
"lecturing" on unimportant topics. Like other men, the 
country over, they were beginning to discuss the coming Presi- 
dential campaign and its possible candidates. It does not ap- 
pear, however, that a man among them all took occasion to 
mention among these latter the defeated antagonist of Douglas 
in the recent State election. 

At the county-seat of Champaign County, in the Eighth Ju- 
dicial District, there was printed at that time a weekly news- 
paper, of good standing and circulation, called the Central Il- 
linois Gazette. It was owned and nominally managed by an 
eccentric and illiterate country doctor, who never wrote for it. 
Its sole editor and real manager was a young man from New 
York who had barely a speaking acquaintance with Mr. Lin- 
coln, though, like most of his neighbors, profoundly respecting 
and even enthusiastically admiring him. 

In April, 1859, Mr. Lincoln was at the Doane House, in 
Champaign, the " railway haK " of the county-seat, in attend- 
ance on business before the court. He had been to the post- 
office quite early one morning, returning, with a hat haK full 
of letters, to a chair in the hotel office. He came in, absorbed, 
gloomy, neither speaking to or even noticing any one as he en- 
tered. He rested his feet on the big stove in the middle of the 
room and began to open and read his letters. 

There had been a sharp dispute in the Gazette office the 
previous day, between the doctor and the editor, as to the pre- 
cise political course to be pursued by that journal. As the 



POLITICAL PROPHECY. 175 

young man now came out from his breakfast in the hotel 
dining-room with his mind yet full of the subject of the quar- 
rel, he saw the well-known face and form of Mr. Lincoln, and 
suddenly resolved to address him and ask his advice. But 
something in the dark, strong face arrested him, and he waited. 
It was worth any man's while to study such a face as that. 
Mr. Lincoln tore open a letter of more than ordinary length 
and began to read. It was closely written in a crabbed, black 
handwriting, but it must have contained matter for thought. 
He read it half through, dropped it in his hat and sat there as 
if looking at something a thousand miles away. His lieavy 
features, deeply furrowed with wrinkles and sallow ^vitli fa- 
tigue of heart and brain, seemed flabby and lifeless for a few 
moments. Then, and swiftly, as if the keeper of the hght- 
house had kindled the great fire within, the eyes and the whole 
face began to light up and glow with all the radiance of the 
hidden life that had so long been living there. The young 
watcher had never before seen anything like that upon any 
face of living being, and he reverently forbore to speak. He 
was thrilled and spell-bound by something of the force of a per- 
sonality which had so often swayed multitudes to the will of 
the orator. 

" The greatest man I ever saw or heard of !" he exclaimed 
to himself, as he quietly slipped out of the hotel. In a few 
moments he was in liis o-svn office and the doctor was there be- 
fore him. 

" Doctor," he shouted, " I've made up my mind for wliom 
we are going for President." 

" You don't say ! Who is it ?" 

" Abraham Lincoln of Illinois !" 

" What ? Old Abe ? Nonsense ! We might go for him 
for Vice-President. He'd never do for any more'n that. 
Seward and Lincoln wouldn't be a bad ticket. Jjut Old Abe ! 
Who put that into your head ?" 

" He did. It's no use, doctor. He's the man. You've 



176 ABRAEA3I LINCOLN. 

got to tend office to-day. I'm off for Springfield, the next 
train, to get material for a campaign-life editorial." 

The doctor yielded, as usual. The young editor went to 
Springfield and returned with his material. The article was 
written, and early in May it was printed. Hundreds of copies 
were industriously sent out, all over the State, to be quoted, 
commented ujDon, approved, and ridiculed, and the work of 
nominating a President, so far as Illinois was concerned, had 
been well begun before the nominee had been spoken to upon 
the subject. At the same time, a letter from the same hand, 
and to the same general eifect, was printed in a journal pub- 
Hshed in the city of New York, but of course without attract- 
ing esj)ecial attention there. 

The fact here related is a fuU refutation of the baseless as- 
sertion that Mr. Lincoln had anything whatever to do with the 
inception of what was strictly a popular movement. But the 
discussion and comments of people and press of course at- 
tracted the attention of those most interested, and from that time 
forth, naturally, both Mr, Lincoln and his friends watched 
closely and discussed freely all indications of the drift of pub- 
he opinion with reference to the coming choice. Echoes 
came speedily, from every chrection, repeating the enthusiastic 
outburst of the ChamjDaign County editor. It looked as if 
some kind of a tide might be rising ; but it was too early yet 
for reasonable calculation. There were many other distin- 
guished names continually upon the lips of men. Hardly a 
State failed of putting forward one or more of its respected 
names in connection with the honorable competition. Plainly, 
a vast amount of careful work was before the party, in the na- 
ture of judicious sorting and sifting. Ordinarily, early " men- 
tion" is sure death to nomination ; but it was well for Mr. 
Lincoln that his candidacy began at so early a day, for even 
his enemies and the crisis itself worked steadily in his behalf. 



THE RISING TIDE. 177 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE EISING TIDE. 



National Fame — The Cooper Institute Speech — Sectionalism — Illinois State 
Convention at Decatur— The Rail-splitter — The Republican National 
Convention at Chicago — Tlie Presidential Nomination — 1859. 

All over the country, and in every part of every section, pop- 
ular preparations for the Presidential campaip;n of 1860 began 
earlier than usual. Men of all parties perceived, more or less 
clearly, that an unprecedented crisis was at hand in public af- 
fairs. 

Mr. Lincoln began to receive letters from various persons 
who inquired as to his views of different questions. These 
were not all sent him with a friendly purpose, but his replies 
were at once frank and judicious. During the autumn of the 
year 1859 he made a number of political speeches in Ohio, 
and early in the winter he did the same in Kansas. Every- 
where he gave renewed evidences of the ripening of his powers 
as a statesman and orator. His fame was gro%ving so fast that 
even his best friends were compelled to recognize it. At last, 
a self-appointed committee of them arranged a conference with 
him, in a room of the State House at Springfield, to urge upon 
him the propriety of formally permitting the use of his name 
as a Presidential candidate. He heard them. He took one 
night to consider the matter, and the next day gave his consent. 
His demeanor throughout the conference was quiet, modest, 
thoughtful, and he expressed strong doubt of success in obtain- 
ing the nomination. 

Meantime an unintended movement in his favor was made 
by men who had no thought of him as a rival of their own pre- 



178 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ferred candidates. In October lie had received an invitation 
to deliver a lecture at the Cooper Institute, in ISTew York City. 
After consulting with Mr. Hemdon, he consented, on condi- 
tion that he should be permitted to speak upon political ques- 
tions, setting a day in the following February. This was 
readily agreed to, and he at once set himself diligently to the 
work of preparation. 

The people of the United States were wonderfully " sec- 
tional " in the year 1859. The North knew little of the South, 
and the South knew almost nothing of the North. The West 
was the very symbol of vagueness and uncertainty to the people 
of the East. The people of the West, other than immigrants 
from the seaboard States, did but dimly bear in mind their re- 
lations to the older settlements between their homes and the 
Atlantic. 

There were therefore few men in Illinois who could com- 
prehend the significance of the invitation to Mr. Lincoln to 
speak in New York, or see how high, how very rare a compli- 
ment was thereby offered him. The great East teemed with 
eloquent men, — ^lawyers, scholars, statesmen, theologians, — and 
yet its chief city asked to hear a man who as yet had won no 
tangible eminence in either of these characters. Except as a 
local celebrity, made such in recent political campaigns, it was 
supposed that he had never been heard of. This was in a 
measure true, for he had been felt rather than heard, and all 
the more did men desire to see and hear him. 

No previous effort of his life cost him so much hard work 
as did that Cooper Institute speech. When finished, it was a 
masterly review of the history of the slavery question from 
the foundation of the government, with a clear, bold, states- 
manlike presentation of the then present attitude of parties and 
of sections. It exhibited a careful research, a thorough knowl- 
edge and understanding of political movements and develop- 
ments, that staggered even the most laborious and painstaking 
students. It showed a grasp, a breadth, a mental training, and 



THE RISING TIDE. I79 

a depth of penetration which compelled the admiration of 
critical scholars. Those who heard and those who afterwards 
read it in print ahke filed it awaj as an historical document. 
Those who listened to its delivery acknowledged with one voice 
that the country possessed and had now discovered one more 
great man and great orator. 

Nothing like this had been at all expected, although enouo-h 
was already known of '^b. Lincoln to call together in Cooper 
Institute an audience which astonished him. The great hall 
was crowded with the best citizens of Xew York. The mem- 
bers of that throng had all of them listened to many celebrated 
speakers and to what they deemed great speeches. They were 
cultivated, intelligent, critical, but they were willing to be 
amused, or even interested, by a first-class specimen of Western 
" stump oratory." They knew sufficiently well that the tall, 
imgainly, awkward man in black who arose upon the platform 
to be introduced by "William Cullen Bryant had had no edu- 
cational advantages. He was a coarse fellow, of low origin, 
who had never been to college or moved in pohshed society. 
He had not so much as distinguished himself as a soldier, office- 
holder, editor, nor had he ever written a book. It was said of 
him that he told funny stories well, and that he had a strange 
faculty for holding the attention of a Western gathering of 
rude, illiterate people. 

Very vague indeed were the notions and expectations of the 
multitude when tlie speaker began, but it was not long before 
an unlooked-for light began to dawn upon them. Slowly the 
minds of all took in the idea that this was an address, not to 
them only, but to the entire American people. 

Mr. Lincoln had toilfully prepared, and was now uttering, 
a declaration of the causes, principles, and purposes which 
underlay the existence and action, past, present, and to come, 
of the Kepubhcan party. He had also fallen but Httle short of 
combining a political platform with an " Inaugural Address." 

The effect may be well expressed in the words with which 



180 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: 

the next day's issue of the New York Tribune, February 28, 
1860, prefaced its report of the speech : " No man ever before 
made such an impression on his first appeal to a New York 
audience," 

Neither has any other man since then approached it, for that 
speech stands alone in the oratorical annals of the great city. 

Mr. Lincoln's further errand in the East had been to visit 
his son Robert, then a student at Harvard; but invitations 
to speak at other points poured in upon him, and he had no 
thought of refusing. Everywhere, as he went, he took the 
minds of men and women captive, and left behind him an im- 
pression which could not pass away. Everywhere, also, he was 
himself taking careful notes of men and things and perfecting 
his knowledge of the people and the country he was so soon 
to rule. He returned to his home a man better and more 
widely known than nine out of every ten who sit out a long 
term in the United States Senate, or than ninety-nine out of 
every hundred who are elected governors of States. 

The Republican National Convention had been called to 
meet at Chicago on the 16th of May, 1860, and the Repubhcan 
State Convention of Ilhnois was held at Decatur on the 9th 
and 10th of the same month. The friends of Mr. Lincoln re- 
solved that the one should prepare their candidate for the 
other. They did not reveal their plans to him, but they laid 
them well and they carried them out to perfection. 

Wlien the State Convention assembled for business, an 
enormous crowd of delegates and other citizens packed the 
large temporary structure erected for the occasion, but Mr. 
Lincoln was not upon the platform. 

Governor Oglesby arose and said : 

"I am informed that a distinguished citizen of Ilhnois, and 
one whom Illinois will ever be delighted to honor, is present ; 
and I wish to move that this body invite him to a seat upon 
the stand." He paused a moment, and then he added, in a 
loud, clear voice : 



THE RISING TIDE. 181 

" Abraham Lincoln !" 

The scene which followed is indescribable for its tamultiious 
enthusiasm. No way could be made through the dense, ex- 
cited, shouting throng, and Mr. Lincoln was borne bodilj, over 
their heads and shoulders, to the place of honor. The order of 
business went on for a while, and then Governor Oglesby arose 
again: 

" There is an old Democrat outside who has something he 
wishes to present to this convention." 

There was a roar of assent from every direction, mingled 
with some few doubts and objections. Then the door of the 
"wigwam" swung open, and a strong old man marched in, 
shouldering two fence-rails of moderate size surmounted by a 
banner inscribed, in large letters : 

"TWO EAILS 

FROM A LOT MADE BY AbKAHAM LdJCOLN AOT) JoKN HaNXS, 

IN THE Sangamon Bottom, in the yeae 1830." 

The hearty-looking, sunburned bearer was old John Hanks 
himself, and he had come to do his part in making his old 
friend President of the United States. He and his burden 
were fitting representatives of the old days of toil, darkness, 
and privation, and the vast throng arose as one man to do 
honor to the striking testimony they brought with them. Li 
an instant Abraham Lincoln, " the rail-spKtter," was accepted 
as the representative of the working man and the t}'pe and 
embodiment of the American idea of human freedom and 
possible human elevation. The applause was deafening. But 
it was something more than mere applause : it was the tem- 
pestuous outburst of a tidal wave of strange and irresistible 
enthusiasm which swept from Decatur to Chicago and thence 
over the whole country. 

Silence came as Mr. Lincoln rose to respond to the vocifer- 
ous demand for a "speech." It was not yet, however, the 



182 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

riglit time for him to speak, and he made no blunder. He 
said : 

" Gentlemen : I suppose you want to know something about 
those things. "Well, the truth is, in the year 1830 John Hanks 
and I did make some rails, in the Sangamon bottom, to fence 
a piece of land. I don't know whether these are some of 
those rails or not. The fact is, I don't think they are a 
credit to the makers. But I do know this : I made rails then 
and I think I could make better rails than these now." 

Shouts and laughter accompanied and followed the few re- 
marks of the " Illinois Rail-spUtter," but the work of capturing 
that convention was accomphshed. There was not a breath of 
opposition, afterwards, to a resolution that — 

"Abraham Lincoln is the first choice of the RepubUcan 
party of Illinois for the Presidency, and its delegates to the 
Chicago Convention are hereby instructed to use aU honorable 
means to secure his nomination, and to cast the vote of the 
State as a unit for him." 

On the 16th of the month the National Convention of the 
party assembled at Chicago. With it came swarms of the 
eager friends of many Presidential aspirants. The city was 
crowded as it never had been before, and the excitement was 
at fever-heat even before the appointed day. 

Two days were consumed in agreeing upon a party platform 
and in a vigorous canvass of delegates with reference to the 
coming ballots for nominations. 

The third day came and the balloting began. It was weU 
known beforehand that on the first ballot the highest vote 
would be given to William H. Seward of 'New York, but no 
man could form a valuable opinion as to what might or might 
not take place afterwards. Mr. Seward's actual vote was 1Y3^, 
but it was a surprise to many that Mr. Lincoln should at once 
come next in rank with 102. The surprise increased upon the 
announcement of the second baUot, when Mr. Seward's vote 
arose to 184^ and Mr. Lincoln followed him with ISl.j It was 



THE RISING TIDE. 183 

manifest that the friends of minor candidates were breakino- 

o 

away from their men under the tremendous pressure and ex- 
citement of the hour, and that the issue lay between the lead- 
ing representatives of the East and the West. It is worthy 
of note that ]Mr. Lincoln himself had remarked, some days 
before the Convention, that Seward or he would get the nomi- 
nation. 

The call of States began upon the third ballot. As it pro- 
ceeded votes flew fast from every quarter, until it was known 
that Mr. Lincoln had 231^, only a vote and a half less than the 
required number. The Convention held its breath for a mo- 
ment, and then Mr. Cartter of Ohio arose to change four of 
the votes of that State delegation from Mr. Chase to Mr. Lin- 
coln. 

The nomination was sealed, and the great " wigwam" shook 
with the excited outburst that followed. No such enthusiasm 
could have greeted any other result, for the fire kindled at 
Decatur had been burning hotter and hotter every hour, and it 
must be said that the men of Illinois had scattered the brands 
of it weU and zealously. Plannibal Hamlin of Maine was 
named for Vice-President, and the Convention shortly ad- 
journed. 

All through these proceedings Mr. Lincoln remained at 
Springfield. lie was continually advised by his friends as to 
the course of events, and took a deep though undemonstrative 
interest in the news they sent him. He was not at all indif- 
ferent, and made no vain and weak pretense of being so ; but he 
exhibited excellent self-control. This was not the kind of ex- 
citement which could disturb a mind so disciplined as his had 
been. On the great third day, when all was seemingly trem- 
bling in the balance, he chatted with friends, read dispatches, 
commented freely on the prospects of other candidates, but 
gave utterance to no opinion as to his own, — until the telegraphic 
announcement of the result of the second ballot was handed 
him. A single flash of personal feeling and human ambition 



184 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

escaped him then, for, with familiar reference to his powerful 
rival, he exclaimed : 

" I've got him !" 

He was not thinking of himself too much, however. 
Shortly afterwards came another message informing him of 
his nomination. 

While the streets of Springfield rang with " cheers for Lin- 
coln" from men of all parties, proud of their friend and neigh- 
bor, he turned quietly away from their plaudits and congratu- 
lations, remarking: 

" Well, gentlemen, there's a Httle short woman at our house 
who is probably more interested in this dispatch than I am ; 
and, if you will excuse me, I will take it up and let her see it." 

On the following day the appointed Committee of the Con- 
vention, headed by its president, arrived in Springfield with 
the formal announcement of its action. They found the man 
of their choice, contrary to their expectation, sad, gloomy, 
already dejDressed by the crushing burden they had come to 
lay upon him. He received their address with great dignity, 
replying in a few well-chosen sentences full of deep feehng. 
He promised to answer them in writing after a more careful 
consideration of the resolutions adopted by the Convention. 
The f oraial acceptance, made the following day, was very brief, 
but left nothing to be asked for in its manner or its substance. 

The several forces which were to contend for mastery in the 
political campaign of 1860 were marshaled in a manner sig- 
nificant of the chaotic state to which all the old party organiza- 
tions had been reduced. After a vain effort to retain its long- 
accustomed solidity, the Democratic party had angrily split in 
twain. What may be called its Northern division nomi- 
nated Stephen A. Douglas of Ilhnois for President and Hers- 
chel Y. Johnson of Georgia for Vice-President. The other 
division — the pro-slavery, or Southern — nominated John C. 
Breckinridge of Kentucky for President and Joseph Lane of 
Oregon for Vice-President. The persistent remainder of the 



TEE RISING TIDE. Ig5 

old Wliig party, after passing through several mutations of 
name and searching out vain excuses for continuance, now ap- 
peared for the last time, as the " Constitutional Union Party," 
under the nominal leadership of John Bell of Tennessee, as its 
candidate for the Presidency, and of Edward Everett of Mas- 
sachusetts as a possible Vice-President. The voting popula- 
tion of the country had tlieref ore an uncommonly wide discre- 
tion offered them. 



186 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

ELECTED PKESroENT. 

The Great Canvass of 1860— The Critical Election— Southern Threats of 
Civil War — Office-seekers Early — A Wise Decision — Cabinet- making — 
Preparing for the Trouble to Come — A Nation Without a Ruler. 

DuEESTG the political canvass which followed the Chicago 
Convention Mr, Lincoln remained at Springfield. It was a 
matter of manifest propriety that he should maintain as much 
reserve as was consistent with his customary frankness. He 
continued to meet all men freely and avoided none who desired 
to see or speak with him. 

Those few short months were a time of feverish and hourly 
increasing excitement to the entire people, and most of aU to 
the man whom the clearest-minded politicians, North and 
South, himself included, knew they were about to elect as their 
Chief Magistrate. He passed the dense and burdened days, 
therefore, as an intense student of all the present symptoms 
and probable results of that fierce fermentation. 

The collision he had foreseen and prophesied twenty years 
before was at hand. The crisis he had more pubKcly formu- 
lated in his Bloomington speech was hourly drawing nearer. 
Hundreds of Southern orators and writers plainly declared that 
the election of Lincoln would precipitate the struggle he had 
foretold. They were the exponents of a feeling more deep and 
more wiUful than careless observers knew or would believe. 
Their real meaning was that they would regard such an elec- 
tion as their justification for themselves precipitating the 
struggle. It was more a threat than a warning. 

Great pains were taken, by enemies as weU as friends, to 



ELECTED PRESIDENT. 187 

keep Mr. Lincoln well advised of these hostile utterances and 
of all kno"^vn preparations for such action as would f ulfill 
threats. Enough of such preparation showed itself, almost 
publicly, to indicate its extent. Even the methods of its 
veiled and secret operations were from time to time suggested. 

For none of this treasonable agitation, or its consequences, 
could Mr. Lincoln hold himself in any manner responsible. It 
forced upon his mind, however, the necessity he was under of 
speedily establishing his own relations to public affairs and to 
the future of the country. 

The popular vote was given on the 6th of November, with 
a result which sliowed that if the adversaries of the Republican 
party could have united upon any one candidate they would 
have elected him ; but the same was also true of each of the 
four parties. Tlie Lincoln electoral tickets received an aggre- 
gate of 1,857,010 votes; those of Mr. Douglas, 1,291^574; 
those of Mr. Bell, 616,121 ; those of Mr. Breckinridge, 850,082. 
Tiie popular majority against Mr. Lincoln, if it could have 
been so counted, was 930,170 ; but would, by a like reckoning, 
have been much larger against either of the others. 

"When the Electoral Colleges of the several States came 
together and performed their official duties, Mr. Lincoln re- 
ceived 180 votes ; Mr. Breckinridge, 72 ; Mr. Bell, 30 ; Mr. 
Douglas, 12. That, however, was but the formal declaration 
of a result whicli was already known to tlie wliole country. 

Hardly was the popular vote counted, on the 6tli of Novem- 
ber, before the current of office-seekers and other political 
pilgrims to Springfield swelled rapidly to a sort of flood, and 
an important part of Mr. Lincoln's Presidential powers and 
perplexities at once demanded his attention. 

It was popularly taken for granted, at the first, that the in- 
cumbents of aU federal offices would presently be removed 
and that their places would be filled by new men, selected 
from the victorious party. Mr. Lincoln had been thinking of 
this. He understood the situation and the strength it brought 



188 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

to Mm. !N"o other President ever had at Ms disposal more 
than a fraction of the appointing power, for good or evil, 
wMch would be Ms. He could hardly have had a vision, how- 
ever, of the multitudinous offices afterwards to be created and 
added. 

Here was, therefore, the opportunity for an exMbition of 
broad and courageous statesmanship. He plainly saw that the 
administration soon to fall into his hands would need all the 
support it could by any means obtain. He saw that he could 
not assume the position of the paymaster of a greedy party if 
he would long remain the ruler of a nation. It was not many 
days before he was reported, and truly, to have declared his 
intention of appointing to official positions Democrats as well 
as Republicans, and of retaining faithful and capable public 
servants wherever possible. There was a groan of dismay and 
wrath among the office-seekers, but subsequent developments 
proved that the President-elect was j)repared to stand firmly 
by his wise and just decision. 

As a sort of corollary of tMs, it was also made to be under- 
stood that Mr. Lincoln regarded the federal appointments at his 
disposal as in the nature of a public trust, and not at all as his 
private property or to be apportioned among his friends, rela- 
tives, or personal adherents. There was to be little advantage 
to any man in the fact that he had known Mr. Lincoln for 
many years ; or had exchanged small favors with him ; or em- 
ployed him in law-business ; or said " Good-mormng" to him, 
daily. 

TMs was terribly unexpected, and there were some hundreds 
who could never afterwards see that he had not been ungrate- 
ful, they could hardly say for what. Xot a few declared him 
unmindful of his most sacred obhgations — to themselves. 

The great mass of tax-payers and other citizens, for whose 
uses the offices were created and their duties performed, were 
all the better satisfied. At the same time, the sting of defeat 
rankled less dangerously in the hearts of some hundreds of 



ELECTED PRESIDENT. 189 

thousands of people, whose good will was essential to the sta- 
bility of what was, to all intents and pui-poses, a new govern- 
ment. 

It was from the first manifest that Mr. Lincoln would have 
peculiar difficulty in the formation of his Cabinet. He was 
busy with that duty even before election-day. He would 
gladly have obtained the services of some well-known repre- 
sentative of the declared Union-loving element at the South, 
but no such man could be found. There was not one of suffi- 
cient prominence who loved the Union well enough to help an 
Abolition President to preserve it. Every day that came 
brought with it something to render the search more hopeless. 
It was therefore necessary to confine the selections made at 
first to tlie narrow circle of the chiefs of the Republican party. 
A majority of the Cabinet, when at last it was completed, were 
men who had received votes as candidates for nomination in 
the Chicago Convention. The man who called them around 
him had risen above all jealousies, all rivalries, aU selfish con- 
siderations. The settlement of this important matter was not 
finished until after Mr. Lincoln's arrival in Wasliington, but 
enough had been done to assure him of the active co-operation 
of the strong men of his own political faith. 

Perceiving how rapid was and would be the unification of 
the elements with which the nation was to struggle for its 
life, it was the part of a sound and wise statesmanship to con- 
solidate, with all possible s})eed, the power which was to meet 
the now inevitable shock of battle. The difficulties of Mr. 
Lincoln's position at that time have been but little understood. 
The majority of those who have written about them have 
strangely taken it for granted that he was in a manner ignor- 
ant of the course of events. They have regarded him as being 
as much taken by surprise by each successive development as 
might be any private citizen who puzzled over the news 
brought to him, coiTectly or incorrectly, by his favorite news- 
paper. 



190 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

On the contrary, Mr. Lincoln's preparatory education from 
cliildliood, supplemented now througli a thousand channels of 
information, public and private, placed him beyond and above 
the possibility of a sui-prise. 

There was an absorbing problem constantly before him now, 
and his every act and word had to be weighed with reference 
to the danger of an adverse, because premature, solution. It 
was, simply stated, whether the surely coming storm could 
be delayed until the new government should be placed in 
possession of the national capital, and that also with the 
nominal acquiescence of the government which was passing 
away; for four months had yet to elapse between Novem- 
ber of the election and March of the inauguration, and in 
four months what might not happen ! Considering what 
the former government had been in its nature, plans, pur- 
poses, and subserviencies, the best interests of the whole 
country were served by the fact that for the time being 
there was no President at Washington, and that the Disunion 
leaders were acting for themselves upon that well-understood 
hypothesis. Mr. Buchanan, the nominal President, weak, va- 
cillating, out of date, groped blindly around among the jarring 
factions of his kaleidoscopic Cabinet, while its traitors and per- 
jured conspirators were begging their more hot-headed confed- 
erates in the cotton States not to spoil their vile work for them 
by over-haste. At the same time, the loyal members of the 
same remarkable junto of " constitutional advisers" were strug- 
gling manfully to keep in hand something in the outward sem- 
blance of a " Union" to hand over to the man whom the people 
had selected to take the control of it. How nearly they came 
to an utter failure was well known to Mr. Lincoln, from day 
to day. The gloom deepened around him and within him, un- 
til his best friends could but see the shadows on his face, the 
circles under his eyes, the intensity of the sadness in which he 
had been called to make his dwelling-place. He himself was 
aware of this external effect and saw a danger in it. Lest it 



ELECTED PRESIDENT. 191 

should inflneiice nnfavorably the spirits and conrage of those 
about him, and go out through them in widening ripples of 
despondency, he more frequently than ever now assumed an out- 
ward air of cheerful jocularity. It served both for a convenient 
and useful mask and for a genuine rehef . Behind it he studied 
the chaotic Unionism slowly forming and moving into activity 
at the North, and the much more rapidly developing Eebellion 
at the South. No other fact of necessary statesmanship was 
plainer than this : for the creation of a strong, steady, and per- 
manently trustworthy public opinion at the North, the South 
must be permitted to put itseK openly, manifestly, outrage- 
ously in the wrong with reference to the central government. 
There was no doubt that it would shortly do so under the fos- 
tering care of IVIr. Buchanan and his Cabinet. A strong-minded 
man in the executive chair would surely have given the plot- 
ters of secession some ghostly shadow of an excuse for -vnolent 
measures. As it was and as it continued to be, the savage 
brutality of their successive acts remains to be recorded as with- 
out any other palHation than the presumption of their fellow- 
citizens in electing a President openly hostile to the purchase 
and sale of human beings. 



192 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTEE XXYI. 

CASUS BELLI. 

Secession Activities — Lincoln's Policy — In a Trying Position — South Carol- 
ina Takes the Lead — The Confederate States of America— Traitors in 
Congress — Capture of United States Forts and Forces— A Campaign 
of Statesmanship — Vain Premonitions — A Last Meeting. 

That tlie more advanced and determined secessionists were 
prepared to regard the triumph of tlie Republican party and 
the election of Abraham Lincoln as an ample justification of 
an}i;hing they might choose to do, had already been openly de- 
clared in numberless unofficial utterances. 

The extreme view held by so many found a more effective 
if not a more definite expression in a circular letter sent by 
Governor Gist of South CaroHna to the governors of the other 
" cotton States" on the 5th of October, 1860. The governors 
of the slave States subsequently known as "border States" 
were not supposed to be yet prepared to return a favorable re- 
sponse, and were therefore not appealed to. The letter was an 
invitation to concerted and allied action in case the ISTovember 
election should result as was expected, and its language requires 
no explanation : 

" If a single State secedes, we will follow her. If no other 
State takes the lead. South Carohna will secede (in my opinion) 
alone, if she has any assurance that she will soon be followed 
by another or other States ; otherwise it is doubtful." 

The answers, of different dates, varied in character and not 
aU favorable, were probably aU in Governor Gist's hands on or 
before election-day. That of the Governor of Georgia con- 
tained a very significant and important declaration. He said 
that, in his opinion, the people of Georgia would " wait for 



CASUS BELLI. 193 

some overt act" from the Lincoln government. It was not at 
all necessary to inform the secession conspirators that an 
" overt act" of their own would answer their purposes equally 
as well. If they had awaited a sufficient provocation from the 
wise, watchful, patriotic statesman who was then studying 
their course so carefully at Springfield, their conspiracy would 
have died of old age upon their hands. Mr. Lincoln had made 
up his mind and determined his policy as to that point, and 
he afterwards took every opportunity of publicly so saying. 

The circular letter was " secret," but the " message'' of 
Governor Gist to the Legislature of South Carolina, Novem- 
ber 5, 1860 (published on the day preceding the general election- 
day), was an all-sufficient public warning. lie advised the 
assembling of a State Convention and the purchase of arms 
and other war-material. From this date, if not from an 
earlier day, Mr. Lincoln was entitled to consider a war as actu- 
ally begun, and to guide himself accordingly. Upon what he 
might say or do, or leave unsaid and undone, would manifestly 
depend, in great measure, the character and results of the now 
inevitable hostilities. He was already burdened with the deli- 
cate task of so directing the moral forces he represented, and 
over which he exercised an increasing control, that they should 
not too soon assume an aggressive attitude at any point. It is 
hardly possible to overestimate the tact and patience with 
which he successfully accomj^lished this first duty and victory 
of his administration. 

The war-spirit of the South was most intense in South 
Carolina, but was there focalized rather than localized. The 
daily energy displayed by the people of that State in their 
open preparations for bloodshed presented an " object-lesson" 
which Mr. Lincoln and a few other men comprehended per- 
fectly. At the same time, the conservative element at the 
South very sincerely underestimated the determination of their 
neighbors, and the great mass of the Northern people refused 
to regard the matter as anything more serious than an uncom- 



194 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

monly absurd outburst of bluster and parade. The election 
took place, and resulted as has been stated, in the election of 
Mr. Lincoln. 

The State Convention of South Carolina, summoned by the 
Act of the Legislature called for in the message of Governor 
Gist, was chosen on the 6th of December. It met at Columbia, 
the capital of the State, adjourned to Charleston, and almost 
immediately, December 20, adopted an " Ordinance of Seces- 
sion," whereby it pretended to sever the bond between South 
Carolina and the Union, and to terminate all right, power, and 
authority of the general government within the Hmits of the 
State. 

With sundry variations in the manner, form, and declared 
causes and purposes of their alleged going out, the other " cot- 
ton States" followed. Mississippi " seceded " January 9, 1861 ; 
Florida, January 10 ; Alabama, January 11 ; Georgia, Janu- 
ary 19 ; Louisiana, January 26 ; and Texas on the 1st of Feb- 
ruary. 

It was sure to follow that these States would league them- 
selves together in a bond of some kind, as suggested in the 
secret circular letter of Governor Gist. 

Their representatives at Washington, in House and Senate, 
in a paper signed by about half their number, advised that 
such action should be taken promptly. These and other gen- 
tlemen afterwards held seats and exercised Federal legislative 
functions, to hold and exercise which was ludicrously as well 
as criminally illegal if the several secession ordinances were of 
any binding or effective power. The document itself was ac- 
tually made public, as a preparatory step, some days prior to 
the secession of South Carolina. It did but embody, for speci- 
fic uses, the matter and manner of a vast correspondence both 
public and private. 

Pursuing the plan laid down for them, the several seceded 
States appointed delegates to a species of inter-State conven- 
tion, to be held at Montgomery, Alabama. These delegates 



CASUS BELLI. 195 

met in that city on the 4th of February. So well were they 
drilled beforehand in the task allotted them, that on the 8th 
of that month they announced to the world a provisional 
government, under the name of " The Confederate States of 
America." 

Before that joint and formal action could be taken, much 
and very important separate and local rebellion had been vigor- 
ously transacted. Even before adopting her own Ordinance of 
Secession, the disunionists who acted as the State of South 
Carolina had determined upon the early capture of the forts in 
Charleston harbor, wliich were the specific property of the' 
United States Government. These were Castle Pinckney, a 
small affair near the city and of no importance ; Fort Moultrie, 
a larger structure, on Sullivan's Island, occupied by about one 
company of United States regular troops ; and, the most im- 
portant of all, as commanding the approaches from the sea, 
Fort Sumter, a well-built and, if properly manned and pro- 
visioned, all but impregnable fortress on a natural shoal raised 
to an artificial island, near the harbor-mouth. 

So rapid and so public were the preparations for the seizure 
of these forts that Major Anderson, the ofiicer in command of 
Fort Moultrie, found himself compelled to transfer his small 
force, with such stores as he could easily move, to Fort Sumter, 
this being his sole tenable defense. He did so secretly, on the 
night of December 26, only six days after the formal act of 
secession of the State. From that day forward Fort Sumter 
was as regularly and actively besieged as was ever any other 
fortification in any other war. 

On the morning of January 9, the steamer " Star of the 
"West," carrpng the national flag and bearing needed supplies 
to Fort Sumter, was fired upon and driven back to sea by the 
rebel batteries besieging Major Anderson and his forlorn squad. 

Nearly similar was the subsequent course of events at Pen- 
sacola, Florida. Armed forces of the incipient rebellion com- 
pelled the surrender of the Pensacola Navy Yard. Lieutenant 



196 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Slemmer, with forty-six men of the regular army and thirty 
seamen from the Navy Yard, was obliged to abandon Forts 
Barrancas and McRee, on the mainland, and occupy Fort Pick- 
ens, on Santa Kosa Island, at the harbor-entrance. 

On February 18, General Twiggs, commanding the United 
States troops in Texas — but himseK a traitor — surrendered to 
an armed force of rebels the national forts, military posts, and 
property in that State, and made preparations for an evacua- 
tion. 

There were numberless minor acts of open hostility, but the 
recital of these is enough to show that the "War of the Rebel- 
lion had been in active prosecution on the part of the South, 
with continual and important military successes won for them, 
during three full months before Mr. Lincoln could, on the 4th 
of March, assume the nominal direction of public affairs. 

Through all that time nothing whatever of a warHke nature 
was done by the Federal government, beyond some dilatory 
and faint-hearted attempts to send to its servants, shut up in 
Southern forts, reasonable supplies of food. 

The War Office, under the charge of the traitor Floyd, up 
to the day of his resignation, December 31, was administered 
wholly in the interests of the consj)iracy. The appointment 
of Mr. Holt as his successor secured as great a change as was 
possible, with President Buchanan limply sitting in the way 
of all patriotic and especially in the way of all manly and cour- 
ageous action. 

The services of the outgoing President were indeed uninten- 
tionally great, for they prevented the doing of any act to mar 
or interfere with the effect of the policy of Abraham Lincoln. 

The latter fully grasped the situation from hour to hour. 
He well understood that an unwise word or act of his, particu- 
larly any utterance which could be construed as a threat of 
coercion or an expression of bitter feeling or even of just in- 
dignation, would be equivalent to a fatal military disaster. 
There was a vast mass of human tinder in existence, so situated 



CASUS BELLI. 197 

as to be pretty sure to bum for the side wliich should succeed 
in setting it on fire. It was yet an open question bow far the 
conspirators would succeed in carrying with them the non-cot- 
ton-growing slave States. 

An error of judgment on the part of Mr. Lincoln ; an outr 
burst of passion, of impatience, or of partisanship during the 
gloomy days of that long watchfulness and self-restraint, or 
even during the first few weeks of his legal term of office, 
would have lost to the Union at the outset the States of Mis- 
souri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, the area which soon 
afterwards became West Virginia ; and with these as depend- 
encies would also have been lost, at least temporarily, Kansas, 
Southern Illinois, the control of the Mississippi River, and the 
military frontier of the Ohio and the Potomac. 

This was the first campaign of the civil war, and its vast re- 
sults were won by a wise, firm statesmanship. They were won 
before the reorganized nation had a regiment in the field, and 
while its real Commander-in-Chief was living in a two-story 
frame-house at Springfield, in the State of Illinois. 

There was a constant and at times a vehement pressure 
brouglit to bear upon Mr. Lincoln by some of his more fiery- 
spirited political associates. He was urged to abandon his reti- 
cence and to make some pubhc appeal that should " fire the 
Northern heart" as the heart of the South was firing, but he 
was deaf to aU such urgency. He was not unready, indeed, 
^-ith some apt and telling story with which to turn the subject 
and blind and cover his actual perception and purpose. 

In the month of February, ISGl, as a last preparation for his 
departure from Illinois, Mr. Lincoln paid a \asit to liis relatives 
in Coles County. He talked ^-ith old friends and neighbors ; 
visited familiar scenes ; stood for a moment by the gi-ave of 
his father. More than all, he paid a ^nsit of respect and affec- 
tion to his now aged step-mother to whom he was so deeply 
indebted. He spoke of her to friends who were with him in 
tenns of strong and tender feeling. He treated her with all 



198 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the devoted Mndness of a son. The parting between them, 
writes Mr. Lamon, on the authority of persons present, was 
very touching. She embraced him with deep emotion, and 
said she was sure she should never see him again, for she felt 
sure that his enemies would assassinate him. He replied : 

"!N"o, no, mamma, they will not do that. Trust in the 
Lord and all will be well. We shall see each other again." 

He himself was deeply affected, but he was sincere in his 
rejection of her motherly warning. Only a few days later he 
could with difficulty be brought to acquiesce in the precautions 
insisted upon by Mr. Seward and other friends to avoid a well- 
authenticated plot for his murder on the way to "Washington. 
Later still, when threatening letters were almost daily arriving 
at the Executive Mansion, the private secretary in charge of 
the President's mail was instructed to destroy all such missives 
at once and never to show them to Mr. Lincoln or to mention 
to others the fact of their reception. 

He was justified in this, for the assassins, who at last added 
brute courage to their senseless hatred, did not send their in- 
tended victim any written warning. The threatening letters 
were but the cowardly expression of a bitterness which had no 
heart to go further. 

Among the crowds who flocked to see Mr. Lincoln during 
this brief visit to the scene of some of his early experiences 
was old Hannah Armstrong. She also said to him that she 
should never see him again ; that something told her so. They 
would kill him. He only smiled and said to her : 

" Hannah, if they do kill me, I shall never die another death." 

The forebodings which were really weighing upon him did 
not relate to himself, nor could any merely personal considera- 
tion have induced him to postpone for an hour the perform- 
ance of a known duty. 

The time was drawing near for his departure from the home 
he was never to see again. It was a plain, respectable-looking 
wooden dwelling, of two stories, and he had made no attempt 



CASUS BELLI. I99 

to beautify it. His law-office was a dusty, littered, carelessly- 
kept place. Yet in the home and in the office he had thought 
and suffered much, and his heart and brain, in all their patience 
and growth, were linked to every commonplace feature of 
either. He asked Mr. Herndon as a favor, after settling their 
partnership affairs, not to take down the old sign of " Lincoln 
<&: Herndon" for at least four years. He had a hope or thought, 
however faint, that perhaps the days of its usefulness might 
return. They seemed almost happy days, in comparison with. 
those to which he well knew he was going forward. His per- 
ception of the true nature of these has many witnesses. Men 
who remember how he looked during those last few weeks be- 
fore his departure for Washington invariably dwell upon his 
weary, sad, haggard, woe-struck face and his bent and burdened 
form. There were darker circles under his eyes, and the far- 
away, indwelling look, so noticeable in some of his portraits, 
had grown deeper, gloomier than ever. 

What is known as " happiness" had been -denied him in his 
home relations — faithful, devoted, loving as his wife assuredly 
was, and utterly true to her as was he himself. The one love 
which can insure the highest married happiness had come 
to him once, and it had been buried, years and years ago, in 
a grave on the bank of the Sangamon. No breath of scandal 
ever assailed the purity of his domestic life. No smallest 
stain blotted the clear record of his integrity. Of all the 
citizens of Springfield, he was the best known, most highly 
honored, best beloved. But those treasures of human life 
which were as daily bread to the men and women who loved 
and honored him were impossible possessions to the man 
wliose merry jokes they were so fond of repeating, and for 
whom they and others invented such a wealth of varied humor 
over and above all that he ever uttered. 

Much has been said and written to prove that, at this partic- 
ular time, he permitted himself to entertain forebodings and 
f oreshadowiugs of the \nolent death which was to come to him. 



200 ABRAEAM LINCOLN. 

It is as if a vague effort were made to account in some sucli 
stupid way for his access of sadness. Such premonitions come, 
as all men know, whether or not they are afterwards fulfilled. 
If verified, then superstition recalls them and points theatri- 
cally to the grim fulfillment. If not, then skepticism, with 
equal pertinence, forgets them, or gleefully mocks at a false 
prophecy. The shadow upon Lincoln's life was not cast before 
any such inadequate specter as the wonder-seekers have de- 
scribed, but by the coming agony of a great people. For long 
years he had been reading the signs of the times. He under- 
stood better than other men the meaning of the black portents 
on the political sky. They were to him full of blood, and they 
were dark with the horrible suffering of millions. Under and 
in face of all, the responsibility had been laid upon him of 
leading his people forward into the day of their trial and into 
the measureless woe before them. He had been carefully 
trained and developed in the providence of God for the as- 
sumption and bearing of that very burden ; but all his training, 
while giving him the power to bear it, gave him no power to 
cast off any ounce of its crushing weight. 




LIFE MASK OF LINCOLN. 
Taken by the Sculptor, Voices, in the year i860. 



PRESIDENT. 201 



CHAPTEE xxyn. 

PKESEDENT. 

Speaking to the Nation — Diplomacy — Journey to Washington — In the 
Enemy's Country — The District of Columbia Militia — The Flood of 
Office seekers — The Inauguration — The Address — The True Meaning 
of Secession — March, 1861. 

]Mr. Lincoln's term of office as President of the United 
States was to begin on the 4th of March, 1861, but he deter- 
mined to leave Springfield on the 11th of February. 

The policy he was pm-suing required that he should be seen 
and heard and more perfectly understood by the people. It 
was needful that his proceeding to "Washington should be made 
under the concentrated watcliing of both friends and enemies. 

So he decided and so he went. The feverish anxieties of 
millions attended every step of his journey, and the hearts of 
men grew hourly better prepared to sustain him after his ar- 
rival at the seat of government. 

Such preparations for war as had yet been made at the 
North bore no comparison to those of the South. It was the 
18th of Febiiiary before even such a State as Massachusetts 
passed an Act to increase the State militia, and tendering men 
and money to the general government for the maintenance of 
the national authority. The great State of Pennsylvania did 
not take similar action until April 9tli, and the State Legisla- 
ture of New York passed its dilatory " war bill " on the ITth 
of that month. A great deal was doing, in a desultory and ill- 
directed way, by patriotic individuals, but it was not well that 
tlie zeal of even these should be so stimulated that their ac- 
tivity should endanger the diplomatic campaign for the mili- 



202 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tary possession of the border slave-States, or injuriously affect 
the sluggish and bewildered " public opinion" of important 
elements all over the IS'orth. 

At different places on his road to Washington Mr. Lincoln 
made brief offhand speeches to the crowds which gathered to 
meet him, and to reply to various addresses more or less patri- 
otic. Every one of these, however informal and apparently 
devoid of special effort, will bear a careful analysis with refer- 
ence to their intended effect, as that can now be understood. 

The manner of Mr. Lincoln's departure from Springfield 
expressed with honest unreserve his thoughts, feelings, and the 
simple purity of his aspirations. None the less did it clearly 
sound the key-note of all his subsequent official conduct and 
utterances. Seldom, indeed, have words so few and homely 
appealed so powerfully to the hearts of such a mighty multi- 
tude as in reality listened to his farewell sj)eech to his neigh- 
bors. 

The railway-train was nearly ready to bear him away, and a 
crowd had gathered to see it start. The rain was falling fast 
from a darkened sky, and the misty atmosphere suited well the 
gloomy feeling which replaced enthusiasm in the minds of the 
waiting assembly. Mr. Lincoln came out upon the platform 
of the rear car, standing in silence for a moment, bareheaded, 
in the rain. There were tears in his voice when he began to 
speak, but the huskiness departed as he went on and his tones 
grew clear and strong, though tremulous with emotion. He 
said: 

" Friends : 'No one who has never been placed in a like posi- 
tion can understand my feelings at this hour, — nor the oj^pres- 
sive sadness I feel at this parting. For more than a quarter of 
a century I have lived among you, and during all that time I 
have received nothing but kindness at your hands. Here I 
have Hved from my youth, until now I am an old man. Here 
the most sacred ties of earth were assumed. Here all my chil- 
dren were born, and here one of them lies buried. To you. 



PRESIDENT. 203 

dear friends, I owe all that I have, all that I am. All the 
strange, checkered past seems to crowd now upon my mind. 
To-day I leave you. I go to assume a task more difl&cult than 
that which devolved upon "Washington. Unless the great God 
who assisted him shall be with and aid me, I shall fail ; but if 
the same omniscient Mind and almighty Arm that directed 
and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall not fail. 
I shall succeed. Let us pray that the God of our fathers may 
not forsake us now. To him I commend you all. Pennit 
me to ask that, with equal security and faith, you will invoke 
his wisdom and guidance for me. 

" "With these few words I must leave you, for how long I 
know not. Friends, one and all, I must now bid you an aiiec- 
tionate farewell." 

The railway-train bore him away and they saw his face no 
more. 

It is worthy of note, at this point, how entirely every trace 
of skepticism concerning God and his active pro\'idence in 
human affairs had vanished from the mind of Mr. Lincoln. 
The fact should also be noted that he had not enrolled himself as 
a member of any one sect, or declared his unquestioning accept- 
ance of any one creed, selected from among the many formu- 
las presented by professional theologians. The first fact be- 
comes of greater importance and the second of less and less, 
henceforward. The man who could not lie and did not know 
liow to be a hypocrite, publicly and before the world declared 
his simple faith, both then and afterwards. So doing, he con 
tinually called upon his countrymen to join liim in acts of re- 
pentance, forgiveness, prayer, thanksgiving, hope, trust ; reas- 
suring them in God's name when their own hearts sank and 
their own faith failed. lie waded through deep waters and 
found God with him there, and he reverently said so. It is 
too late now for any man rationally to accuse Abraham Lin- 
coln of having acted and uttered a solemn lie. 

There was nothing in the journey to "Washington which put 



204 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ui3on it the appearance of a triumphal procession, in spite of 
several ill-advised local efforts in that direction. Crowds gath- 
ered to see and hear him, and there was much patriotic enthu- 
siasm manifested, although there were many expressions of 
dissatisfaction at the moderate, pacific, and conciliatory nature 
of all the speeches made by Mr. Lincoln. He could see and 
understand that the hot-heads were in a small minority. To 
his ears, under and through all the multitudinous cheering, 
there plainly spoke the hoarse and boding monotone of the 
doubt and dread with which the hearts of men were filling. 

It would seem, from current expressions in the daily press, 
that one great fact escaped every audience of all that heard 
him. Not one seemed to comprehend that the President-elect^ 
in addressing it, was also speaking to a multitude of other 
audiences, North and South. Still less could some understand 
that the expressions they would have been glad to hear would 
have fallen from his lips with the effect of lost battles. It should 
have been, but was not, obvious to all that the one remaining 
hope for the speedy restoration of peace lay in such a restric- 
tion of the area and resources of the rebellion as should dis- 
hearten its leaders by convincing them of foregone failure. 
It was indeed a faint hope, but it was honest and merciful, 
and it was carefully encouraged by Mr. Lincoln in the hearts 
of the yet undecided masses of the disputable Southern areas, 
until they were made ready to turn in their wrath against the 
conspirators whose violence disappointed them. 

On his arrival at Philadelphia, Mr. Lincoln received a grim 
warning that he had reached the borders of the doubtful terri- 
tory for the control of which the rebel leaders were intriguing. 

The State of Maryland was in a condition of fierce but some- 
what vague fermentation, and the city of Baltimore was hardly 
less bitter against Abolitionism than was Eichmond itself. On 
the other hand, it is equally true that if, at as early a day, Rich- 
mond could have been forcibly occupied and controlled as was 
Baltimore soon after this date, quite as much and as genuine a 



PRESIDENT. 205 

"Union sentiment" would have been found there, or sui'cly 
would have been developed bj similar processes. 

Mr. Lincoln's resjDonsible advisers were warned of what 
seemed to be a desperate plot for his murder while on the road 
to "Washington. Whether or not their conclusions were well 
sustained by the evidence in their possession is of no impor- 
tance whatever. They were convinced of the reahty of the 
impending peril, and every consideration forbade to them or 
him the crime of running a needless risk of such a disaster. 
No question of mere vanity of individual courage could be en- 
tertained for a moment. The trip across Maryland was there- 
fore made suddenly and in private, and the Chief Magistrate- 
elect of the United States entered the Capital unexpectedly to 
all, and without so much as a group of waiting officials to wel- 
come him. There had been no attempt at personal disguise, 
nor any really undignified concealment on the part of Mr. Lin- 
coln or the personal friends who accomjoanied him. Neverthe- 
less, the whole affair was a sad commentary upon the well- 
understood attitude of pro-slavery feeling and purpose. All 
men knew that slavery had frequently committed murder on a 
small scale ; that it was deliberately preparing to do murder 
on a large scale ; and that its fiercer fanatics could not sanely 
be trusted to withhold their hands from any particular bnitality. 

The city of Washington itself, so far as its genuine popular 
feeling went, was hardly a part of the disputed territory. 
There was a strong and faithful Union element among its citi- 
zens, but this was in a sad ininority both as to number and 
power. When the new Commander-in-Chief and President 
reached his hotel, he was, in a manner, within the enemy's lines. 
He had stolen a march, however, and his very presence gar- 
risoned the city for the Union. 

There was very little indeed of any other garrison as yet, 
except a few marines at the Navy Yard, and a handful of artil- 
lerjTiien at the arsenal, not 500 in all. Regular organizations 
of Secessionists, some of them armed and equipped, existed, 



206 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

met, drilled, within the city limits, and even in the offices and 
halls of more than one of the public buildings. 

An attempt had been made to reorganize the local militia, 
for defense only, and not for service beyond the District of 
Columbia, but the results had been more instructive than en- 
couraging. As early as January 2d, 1861, the War Depart- 
ment, advised by General Scott, assigned to this duty Captain 
Charles P. Stone of the regular army, as Inspector-General of 
the District of Columbia. General Stone's services were in- 
valuable and were rendered under peculiar difficulties. He 
quickly made the discovery that the greater part of the official 
civilians of the District, and of the Capital in particular, like 
their friends and exemplars the Southern officers of the army 
and navy, were meditating if not actually preparing for a 
speedy exchange into the rebel service. The several militia 
organizations of the city were able to present but one well 
drilled and uniformed " crack" company, the National Eifles. 
This company, which afterwards rated in the new organization 
as " Company A, Third Battalion, District of Columbia Kiiles," 
was composed of young gentlemen of good social standing and 
fairly represented the better classes of the municipality, and it 
placed on record a striking illustration of the situation. It 
speedily became so depleted by desertions Southward, including 
its captain, that it was necessary to fill its ranks anew with loyal 
clerks from the departments and with young men recently 
arrived from the l^orth. When so filled up, it contained still a 
trace and remnant of the local militia, but its body was com- 
posed of representatives of nearly every loyal State, Virginia, 
Kentucky, and Missouri not excepted. The second company of 
the same battalion was composed almost entirely of Germans, 
and the third of a general mixture of native and foreign ele- 
ments. Several other " battalions" were formed under Gen. 
Stone's management, but a well-grounded distrust of their fidel- 
ity prevented any very active use of them as a whole. After 
the first company named was made over and became truly 



PRESIDENT. 207 

" national" it rendered good service. It was employed on guard- 
duty at the Long Bridge over the Potomac and elsewhere ; to 
seize a river-steamer threatened with capture by the rebels ; to 
occupy the railway -station at Annapolis Junction, and so hold 
open the gate for the New York Seventh to come safely in ; 
and on the final invasion of Yirginia it was the first to enter 
that State, across the Potomac. Still its history describes, more 
perfectly than it could in any other manner be described, the 
kind of loyalty Mr. Lincoln found waiting for him in Washr 
ington : the one military company the District owned broke 
ranks and went South. 

Mr. Lincoln took rooms at Willard's Hotel on his arrival. 
He had yet a week of hard work between him and the 4th 
of March. He put himself at once in communication with the 
loyal members of Buchanan's Cabinet, and witli that true- 
hearted and unswerving old patriot, Lieutenant-General Win- 
field Scott, of Virginia. The commonwealth possessed in the 
latter a pillar of honor that could not be and was not for a 
moment shaken. 

The formal counting of the electoral votes in the presence 
of Congress had been duly performed on the 13th of February, 
and even before that date the tide of new men set in from the 
North. The city soon became crowded as it had never been 
before, although so large a percentage of its customary popula- 
tion, official and otherwise, was daily leaving it for more South- 
erly and congenial atmospheres. 

There was something almost phenomenal in the crowd of 
hungry office-seekers. They filled the hotels and boarding- 
houses. They thronged the passages and anterooms of the 
pubhc buildings. Hundreds of anxious politicians, large and 
small, came pouring in by every train, so ignorant of public af- 
fairs that they hardly knew what to apply for, and still less 
for what duties they were prepared. They came from every 
nook and corner of the country, and they brought at least one 
unmistakable comfort to Mr. Lincoln. Their very coming as- 



208 ABRAEA3I LINCOLN. 

sured him that the people they represented had an undisturbed 
confidence in the stability of the government. The masses 
failed to realize any danger of its overthrow. Men could not 
and did not see how nearly new was the fabric about to take 
shape in Mr. Lincoln's hands, or how completely the old order 
of things had passed away. 

The tone of Washington " society" was intensely " seces- 
sion," but, for tlie first time in its history, it found itself utterly 
bereft of political influence. Its feeble cry was quickly 
drowned in the flood of unreasoning loyalty from the North. 
It was all in vain that the unanimous pianos of the lady-rebels 
wore themselves out with j)ouring through s^jitefuUy open 
windows the " patriotic music" of the South. They kept it 
up until the day when the Twelfth New York regiment 
marched down Pennsylvania Avenue with its full brass band 
playing " Dixie" for dear life. Then the piano-players yielded 
in disgust, declaring that " the Yankees had robbed them of 
even their national airs." 

The preparations made for the " inauguration ceremonies" 
on the 4th of March were somewhat as usual, but precautions 
were taken, of a police and military nature, against possible 
mob-action or any attempt at assassination. 

For the first time in American history was any part of the 
people of the United States deemed unworthy to be trusted to 
keep the peace while a chosen President should take the oath 
of ofiice. 

A vast throng gathered in front of the eastern portico of the 
Capitol, upon the steps of which a temporary structure of wood 
had been erected for the occasion. At twelve o'clock, noon, 
the Buchanan Administration expired by limitation. Up to 
that hour Mr. Buchanan himself remained at the Capitol, en- 
gaged in signing bills. He then went to Willard's Hotel, to 
accompany Mr. Lincoln, and both Houses of Congress ad- 
journed. 

All remaining preparations were quickly completed, and the 



PRESIDENT. 209 

Presidential procession formed upon Pennsylvania Avenue. It 
moved along with a slow dignity, undisturbed in any manner, 
yet bearing a heavy and somber air vrliich seemed to be fully 
in sympathy with that of the crowds which stared at or accom- 
panied it. 

At about a quarter past one o'clock Mr. Lincoln reached the 
Senate Chamber, where the members of the two Houses, of 
the Supreme Court, of the Diplomatic Corps, the heads of ex- 
ecutive departments, and other privileged persons, were already 
assembled. From thence, a few moments later, all passed on, 
in stately progress, to the platform from which Mr. Lincoln 
was to announce his purposes as President, — not to that thi'ong 
only, but to the country and to the world. 

He had given the finishing touches to his address that very 
morning. None knew so weU as he what consequences would 
surely follow any blunder in tone or mistake in declaration. 
He looked worn and pale and anxious, but from the first to the 
last his voice rang out clear, firm, unhesitating, resonant with 
faith and courage, while its every tremor and modulation 
seemed to vouch for his sincerity. He was making his last 
appeal for peace and his last solemn protest against needless 
bloodshed. The address may be epitomized as an argumenta- 
tive attempt to convince all whom it might concern that there 
was nothing in the past or present attitude or purposes of the 
Kepubhcan party, nor any possible action by the national gov- 
ernment as it would be administered by himself, which could 
sanely be construed as a justification of revolution and civil 
war. There was in it, however, no expression which could be 
interpreted as an admission of the right of peaceable secession 
on the part of any State. On the contrary, it contained one 
clause which closed the door upon any hope which the con- 
spirators may have entertained that the threatening aspect of 
alfairs had affected his steady firmness. He said : 

'' The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and 
possess the property and places belonging to the government 



210 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and to collect the duties and imposts ; but beyond what may 
be necessary for these objects there wdll be no invasion, no 
using of force among the people anywhere." 

He kept his word carefully afterwards, for he thus described 
the precise result obtained when, four years later, the last rebel 
army laid down its arms and surrendered. In these few wofds 
he condensed the most important visible expressions of Ameri- 
can national sovereignty. 

Towards the close of his argument Mr. Lincoln addressed 
himself altogether to the people of the seceded States and such 
other communities as seemed likely to follow their leading. 
He said : 

" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not 
in mine is the momentous issue of civil war. The govern- 
ment wiU not assail you. You can have no conflict without 
being yourselves the aggressors." 

This was but a plain reiteration of his frequently declared 
position, and it was now more than ever perfectly understood 
and comprehended. The rebellion had already taken him at 
his word. It had made itseK the aggressor at a hundred dif- 
ferent places, and it was hourly preparing to strike such addi- 
tional blows as should assume for it the full responsibility he 
so forcibly presented. 

There is one other sentence in the address which is full of 
meaning. It tells in a few words a fundamental truth of the 
American national organism. 

Of politics, in 1850, he had said to his friend Mr. Stuart : 
"The time wiU come when we must aU be Democrats or 
Abohtionists." 

Of the government and its constitution he had said, in 1858, 
in his Bloomington speech : " I beHeve this government can- 
not endure permanently haK slave and haK free. I do not ex- 
pect the Union to be dissolved. It will become all one thing 
or all the other." 



PRESIDENT. 211 

Of the territorial area involved he now said with equal 
clearness : " Physically speaking we cannot separate." 

The leaders of the rebellion perfectly understood the axiom 
60 enunciated, and they had laid their plans accordingly. 

For more than a generation they had ruled the whole coun- 
try through the clumsy machinery provided for them at "Wash- 
ington. Their " secession" now was but a first step in a design 
which proposed a more absolute, more sweeping, and more 
arbitrary domination. 

They looked forward to the control of the entire territory of 
the United States, then to that of the whole continent to the 
Isthmus, and with that the absorption of the West Indies. 

Slavery was aggressive as a necessity of its existence. Its 
rebuff in its attempt upon Kansas and Nebraska had but pre- 
cipitated the more desperate undertakings of its bloody cam- 
paign for its life. At the hour when Mr. Lincoln was speak- 
ing, armed rebel forces were abeady preparing to seize New 
Mexico and the adjacent Territories. A well-devised conspir- 
acy was at work in the free State of California. There was a 
strong pro-slavery element in the city of New York, hardly 
deigning to disguise itself under what now seems the -svild pro- 
ject for slicing off that commercial metropoHs by itself as " a 
free city." 

In every place, and in whatever form, the true intent and 
meaning of every suggestion of dismemberment was the event- 
ual unification of the United States as a Slave Empire. 

The issue thus created was met squarely by Mr. Lincoln then 
and afterwards, but the hour was not ripe for its elaborate pre- 
sentation. He was a ruler about to assume the direction of a 
war in which his opponents had had nearly their own way for 
three months. He was a commander-in-chief with a bank- 
rupt treasury and without either army or navy. He was 
himseK then standing upon a platform on the steps of a build- 
ing some days' march withiu the enemy's lines. He was ad- 
dressing himself to populations listening to his words as if 



212 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

almost in searcli of causes of offence. He was compelled to 
clothe his plainest enimciations in such forms of speech as 
should not throw away communities and States by arraying 
angrily against him the very elements whereof he hoped and 
intended to make immediate use. 

Read in the light of subsequent deeds and events, Mr. Lin- 
coln's inaugural address must be given the high praise that it 
was a State paper equal to the demands of an unparalleled oc- 
casion. 



WAB. 213 



CHAPTEE XXYin. 

WAE. 

The New Era — Unification of the South — Free Speech — Copperheads — The 
Cabinet — The "White House — Confederate Ambassadors — Traitors in 
Office— The Border States— The Sumter Gun— The President's Call to 
Arms— April, 1861. 

Mk, Jetteesox Davis was installed as President of the 
Southern Confederacy on the 18th of February, ISCl, and the 
flag of rebellion, afterwards so well known as the " Stars and 
Bars," was formally adopted, on the 4:th of March, as the em- 
blem of organized pro-slavery war. Around the flag and its 
chosen bearer were rapidly grouped and sohdified the ready 
elements of the great peril with which Mr. Lincoln had thus 
far dealt with such skillful and courageous conservatism. 

The forces he was thenceforth to direct were ample but 
were as yet chaotic and tumultuous, and his first duties were 
mainly those of organization. 

The last Congress of the Buchanan Administration had 
steadily drifted out of pro-slavery control. The consecutive 
departures of its ultra-Southern membership left it more and 
more a " Republican" body, politically speaking, but its Union- 
loving elements were irregularly stratified and were not yet 
prepared to work in unison. Its closiQg hours were eignahzed 
by the rejection of the weak work of the so-called "Peace 
Congress" and of what was known as the " Crittenden Com- 
promise." 

The timely death of these twin-children of legislative timid- 
ity relieved Mr, Lincoln of any annoying guardianship of what 
must have proved a perpetual minority. 



214 ABEAEAM LINCOLN. 

On the adjoTimment of Congress and the unobstructed in- 
auguration, the North as a whole and the Union men of the 
border States breathed more freely for a few days, but the war 
went steadily onward. The chosen chief of the rebellion, a 
man of intense individuahty, despotic will, and much executive 
abihty, was rapidly invested with powers which were only in 
name and form less than autocratic. He and his fellow-con- 
spirators clearly perceived the necessity of forbidding and pre- 
venting any ojDen division of popular sentiment in the districts 
under their control. 

The structure of Southern society gave them all facilities, 
and they began at once a work of suppression, continued to the 
end of the war, which did not hesitate in the employment of 
needful methods and agencies. The most searching espionage 
was supplemented by the most pitiless cruelty, and in due time 
the rebelhous region was effectively unified. 

No similar assault upon or destruction of personal liberty of 
thought or speech or action was at all possible at the North. 
No such tyranny was called for, nor was it ever undertaken. 
It would have been as foreign to the nature of Mr. Lincoln as 
to the genius of the free people who sustained him. Both he 
and they were afterwards slow to adopt the simplest and most 
necessary repressive measures. From the first to the last the 
critics of the Administration used their tongues and pens with 
a freedom which was by no means altogether due to the gen- 
eral faith in their impotence for serious mischief. Doubtless 
contempt had its share, however, in the leniency extended at 
the North to the large class of j)oliticians of traitorous ten- 
dencies who shortly came to be known as " Copperheads," from 
the venomous reptile of that name. 

The selection of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet was nearly completed 
when he took the oath of office. The group of men he now 
gathered around him was eminently representative, politically 
and geographically. Wilham H. Seward, of New York, was 
appointed Secretary of State; Simon Cameron, of Pennsyl- 



WAB. 215 

vania, Secretary of "War; Gideon Welles, of Connecticut, 
Secretary of the Kavy ; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, Secretary 
of the Treasury ; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, Secretary of the 
Interior ; Edward Bates, of Missouri, Attorney-General ; and 
Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, Postmaster-General. 

Subsequent changes need not now be noted, but it was e^'i- 
dent from the first that it would require a man of marked in- 
tellectual and moral superiority to be the actual guiding mind, 
governing will, and recognized chief among such men as these 
whose success as leaders was already notable. Many, indeed, 
were ready to offer an opinion that Mr. Lincoln would either 
be a puppet in their hands, tossed to and fro between opposing 
cabals as Mr. Buchanan had been, or that, for peace and quiet, 
he would soon drift imder the sole management of some one 
strong mind and subtle purpose among his constitutional ad- 
visers. That there was never the slightest peril or sign of 
either disaster is a testimonial of the completeness with which 
he had already mapped out the course he meant to pursue. At 
the same time it speaks for the acuteness and patriotic readiness 
with which the Cabinet at once stepped out upon the path upon 
which they were to co-operate but not to lead. 

The Executive IMansion was a curious study during many 
days and weeks following the inauguration. Its haUs and 
offices were literally packed with human beings. There were 
days when the throng of eager applicants for office filled the 
broad staircase to its lower steps; the corridors of the first 
floor ; the famous East Eoom ; the private parlors ; while anx- 
ious groups and individuals paraded up and down the outer 
porch, the walks, and the Avenue. 

The entrance of the Cabinet officers upon their duties and 
appointing powers drew away much of this pressure after a 
while, and Mr. Lincoln was at once accused of transferring too 
much of his prerogative to his subordinates. That he should 
have relief would have been a physical necessity under any 
circumstances, but he now had more important matters on his 



216 ABRAHAM LINCOTM 

hands than the aiiportionment of partisan rewards of services. 
His kindly nature led him to surrender only too much of his 
time and strength to private hopes and ambitions. He had 
hardly time left him to eat and sleep. 

The clerical work of the executive office under previous ad- 
ministrations had been comparatively small, and there was no 
existing law under which the force for its performance could 
be increased. The President of the United States was allowed 
but one " private secretary," on a very moderate stipend. To 
this office he appointed Mr. John G. I^icolay, who had already 
served him in that capacity. N'ow that the sheer need of work 
in hand called for a second private secretary, and Mr. John 
Hay was in fact made such, it was necessary to have him ap- 
pointed a clerk in a department and " assigned to duty" at the 
"White House. A few weeks later, when a third was needed, 
it was easy to summon to Mr. Nicolay's assistance Mr. "Wil- 
liam O. Stoddard, who had been already appointed the Presi- 
dent's secretary to sign land-patents. 

These three young men, with occasional help from depart- 
ment clerks detailed, were all the force with which Mr. Lincoln 
performed the ceaseless labors of the executive office during 
the earlier and stormier days of his administration. 

That there was much transfer of "bureau work" to the 
several departments where it belonged requires no other ex- 
planation. 

It was contrary to Mr. Lincoln's nature to meddle with petty 
details unnecessarily, but he was frequently drawn into what 
looked like meddling by his eager desire for exact informa- 
tion ; by the real or apparent application of a principle ; by the 
expression of personal good will or under the influence of some 
strong emotion. Those who accused him of listening too easily 
to the importunities of friends and the pressure of interested 
politicians knew very little of the tidal waves which daily 
broke at his door to recede in a grumbling " undertow" of bit- 
ter dissatisfaction. 



WAR. 217 

The days of the first week were expended in making the 
more important official appointments to office ; in strengthen- 
ing somewhat the shadowy military force at command ; but 
more than all in gaining time for the sure operation of the less 
visible forces which were steadily depriving the conspirators 
of the advantages so nearly within their reach. 

On the 12th of March there arrived in Washington tliree 
very extraordinary ambassadors. Mr. Roman, of Louisiana, 
Mr. Forsyth, of Alabama, and Mr. Crawford, of Georgia, were 
empowered by the Confederate Government to open diplo- 
matic relations with the Government of the United States. 
They were not private adventurers, but commissioners duly 
nominated by the Confederate President, and confirmed Feb- 
ruary 25 by the Confederate Senate. Their eiTand, to ex- 
press it concisely and correctly, was to demand and accept the 
pusillanimous surrender, by Mr. Lincoln, to the RebelHon in 
armsj of all it had already seized and as much more as it could 
lay its hands upon. It was their business to invite him to 
imitate stupidly the intelligent treachery of General Twiggs 
when tlie latter surrendered the troops and forts in Texas. 

The three commissioners were not arrested for treason. 
They came unnoticed and departed unhindered. Mr. Lincoln 
was bitterly blamed for this by over-zealous patriots, who 
could not discern that the brazen impudence of such an em- 
bassy was also a plain expression of the dullness behind it 
which could be guilty of such a blunder. 

The North was now at last beginning to wake up and arm 
itself. The new government at Washington was rapidly com- 
pleting its organization. S\vift search and inquiry was making 
among anny and navy officers and cn-il employees of the de- 
partments as to what might be expected of them. It was pre- 
eminently needful that the government should know something 
of the probable capacity and fidelity of its agents before en- 
trusting them with the execution of war measures. The absence 
or defectiveness of such Imowledge, in the outset, and the se- 



218 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

lection and assignment of new men to varied duties, and not 
at all any imaginable vacillation or uncertainty of tlie Presi- 
dent's purposes, operated as a kind of partial paralysis for a 
time. 

A complete illustration of this peculiar difficulty of Mr, Lin- 
coln's position during those long, weary weeks of March is 
offered by the subsequent destruction of the ITorfolk Kavy 
Yard, in Yirginia, instead of its retention as a military post. 
With all its vast uses, it was lost to the nation by the base 
treachery of the very officers in charge of it ; its loyal com- 
mander. Commodore McCauley, being powerless among his 
rebel subordinates. Mr. Lincoln might well act cautiously un- 
til a species of weeding-out process had performed itself more 
thoroughly by the actual personal seceding of the Secessionists 
in Federal offices. 

On the 6th of the month the Confederate Government is- 
sued its first formal call for troops. Only one hundred thou- 
sand were summoned, but it had at least that number already, 
more or less perfectly organized and armed, under competent 
officers. 

The South contained much more than its proportion of 
"West Point graduates, retired from military service. To these 
were rapidly added no less than 269 officers whose secession 
proclivities led them to resign their positions in the United 
States army. How large a power of courage, dash, genius, and 
military science these men carried with them the course of 
the war was yet to show ; but the army was an untrustworthy 
machine until they were all out of it. 

The Confederate statesmen were providing their proposed 
campaign with materials as well as men. Their emissaries in 
'New York and elsewhere were buying and shipping to them 
all obtainable arms and munitions of war. Larger purchases 
than ever before were making in the West of provisions of all 
sorts, and the cargoes were hastening down the Mississippi. 

The energy, foresight, and abihty displayed in this direction 



WAB. 219 

were imdeniable ; but in spite of all tMs and their relentless 
determination, they were wasting time which Mr, Lincoln was 
using. 

He was in sore need of every hour. The secession element 
in all the doubtful regions was in a state of fermentation, 
nearly ready for an explosion. Should this be unduly hastened, 
no human wisdom could forecast the consequences. As early 
as December 24, 1860, the Eichmond, Ya., Enquirer newspaper 
had editorially recommended that Virginia and Maryland 
should unite in resuming possession of the District of Colum- 
bia and the city of Washington. The seizure could then have 
been made in-esistibly, or at any date thereafter up to the first 
day of May. Both States contained organized military bodies 
of sufficient strength, composed of men who merely waited an 
apparent pretext and some sort of lawful authority for active 
operations. 

Delay was their defeat. The national capital and the territory 
north of it, to the free-State lines, which lay at the mercy of 
the rebellion all through the month of March, grew less and 
less so from the first of April onward. That its danger then 
became more apparent to all men was but because all men be- 
gan to see more plainly. By that time the new national gov- 
ernment was organized very nearly as thoroughly as was its 
somewhat older antagonist at Montgomery. It had at its com- 
mand no troops to speak of, but the States of Virginia and 
North Carolina were still left as a neutral belt between the 
bare and undefended lines of the Potomac and that part of the 
rebel forces which was prepared for immediate battle. 

It was impossible that tliis state of things should continue 
much longer. The Confederacy was suffering too much from 
it and found at last a pretext for its forcible termination. 

The siege of Fort Sumter had thus far been confined to a 
rigid blockade, and the unmilitary millions of the American 
people were unable to realize that tliis was as distinct and posi- 
tive an act of war as the resonant use of gimpowder. The gar- 



220 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

rison was now running short of provisions, and it was both the 
right and duty of the government at Washington to supply 
them. The performance of this duty was delayed to the last 
moment consistent with honor or humanity, in order that the 
inevitable consequences might also be postponed as long as 
possible. 

On the 8th of April a government messenger read to Gov- 
ernor Pickens, of South Carolina, at Charleston, the following 
brief message *. 

" I am directed by the President of the United States to no- 
tify you to expect an attempt will be made to supply Fort 
Sumter with provisions only, and that if such attempt be not 
resisted no effort to throw in provisions, arms, or ammunition 
will be made without further notice or in case of an attack on 
the fort." 

Tlie relieving expedition did not sail from IS'ew York until 
the morning of the 9th, and it never performed its mission. 
There was something of confusion and delay in its official 
management, and a rough sea helped to defeat the zeal of its 
brave commander ; but it had already been denied a landing. 

After some preliminary exchanges of threats and resj)onses 
between the besiegers and the besieged, the jDohtical mine had 
been fired, and the explosion had blown away all remaining 
uncertainties. The rebel authorities gravely decided that Mr. 
Lincoln's notification of his intention to prevent starvation in 
Port Sumter was " a declaration of war." Only the grim and 
ghastly consequences of their decision conceal the humorous 
absurdity of it. At half -past four o'clock, on the morning of 
April 12, the first gun, "the Sumter gun," was fired, and 
the first shell struck the fort. It was a well-aimed shot. ]^o 
harm was done to the fortress, but Mr. Lincoln's most serious 
perplexities were knocked away for him. The " policy of de- 
lay" was shattered forever, at the very moment when Mr. Lin- 
coln had himseK decided that he could not continue it with 
advantage nor abandon it without peril. He knew that every 



WAR. 221 

man in tlie country could hear that cannon and understand the 
meaning of that bursting shell. 

For the Eebellion, also, that shot and those which followed 
it were apparently well aimed. The garrison of Fort Sumter 
was compelled to haul down the Stars and Stripes and surren- 
der, on Sunday morning, April 14; but the capture of the 
fortress was only a part of the seeming Secession victory. Al- 
ready the war-fever had spread with electric swiftness through 
North Carolina, Yirginia, Arkansas, Maryland, and the news 
of such a victory augmented it with a sudden power. 

The war — for such the state of hostilities must be called — 
had now continued for four full months with fluctuating 
fortunes, and the rebels had many good reasons for rejoicing 
over their present advantage. With it came the port of 
Charleston, afterwards so useful to them, and which would 
have been so dangerous to them in the hands of a Federal 
army. 

In a few days, and practically captured at the same hour, 
came all the States above named except Maryland. They 
would have obtained that also, and with it what is now "West 
Yirginia, and Kentucky and Missouri, if it had not been for 
yet another and to them an entirely unlooked-for consequence 
of their victory in Charleston harbor. 

It is very difficult now to miderstand, difficult even to be- 
lieve, the nature, degree, extent, of the delusions then preva- 
lent at the South concerning the resources and character of 
the people of the K'orth. Even the nominally educated and 
intelligent classes shared in these delusions, remarkal)ly. That 
the population of the free States was utterly unwarlike, and 
would shrink from the ordeal of actual bloodshed, was so 
deeply ingrained in the Southern mind that it was impossible, 
years afterwards, for even official statistics to convince them 
that the national armies were not mainly composed of hired 
foreigners. 

Mr. Lincoln knew his countrjTiien better, and his entire 



222 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

demeanor changed, in his utter confidence as to the response 
which would be made to the Sumter gun. 

Yet he had reasons for proceeding with caution even now. 

Clearly perceiving the near and open coming to himself of 
dictatorial power and responsibility, and feeling that he must 
at once, but unobtrusively, assume and exercise both, his first 
action evinced neither alarm nor haste. 

The news of the fall of Sumter reached Washington on Sun- 
day morning, April 14, but it was already well known by the 
President that such news must come and that its arrival was a 
question of a few hours only. The news of the bombardment 
had arrived but one day earlier, but its foreordained results did 
not take him by surprise. The Cabinet had already been sum- 
moned, and had assembled to discuss the situation. There is 
good evidence that Mr. Lincoln had been opposed by the 
majority of his constitutional advisers, first, in his determina- 
tion to hold Fort Sumter to the last, and then in his decision to 
re-provision it. He was now to show them that the result was 
no more a disappointment to him than to Mr. Jefferson Davis 
himseK. That gentleman, in the month of February, 1861, 
when on his way to Montgomery to assume the Presidency of 
the Confederacy, remarked to ex-Chief Justice Sharkey, of 
Mississippi, " There will be war, long and bloody." In his 
inaugural address he said, "It is deemed advisable in the 
present condition of affairs that there should be a well in- 
structed and disciplined army, more numerous than would 
usually be required on a peace establishment." 

How vigorously he and his supporters acted upon their sound 
convictions is matter of history. They did what they could, but 
they had thus far been unable to break through the " border- 
State barrier" maintained against them by Mr. Lincoln's pru- 
dence. It had been the only defense he could safely employ 
until they themselves, by the capture of Fort Sumter, set his 
hands free. So many things were then living that are now 



WAR. 223 

dead, or live only in other forms, that it is not easy to explain 
or understand what mere questions of " statute law" and con- 
stitutional interpretation had, up to this moment, been felt by 
Mr. Lincoln as fetters upon his conduct. There was a war 
upon his hands, but nothing as yet had visibly conferred the 
war power upon him. Huge " anti-coercion meetings" in the 
great cities of the North, and the utterances of the most loyal 
journals, kept him well ad\ased of the prevalent conservatism 
of pubhc opinion. 

Able lawyers openly expressed professional doubts as to 
whether IMr. Lincoln had any power to call for troops or to 
make use of them if he should call and get them. He had no 
constitutional right or authority to raise or appropriate money. 
The lawyers were almost unanimous in declaring that he 
must at least await the assembling and action of Congress. 
It would not do for him to tyrannically usurp anything 
beyond what was set down in the books and expounded by 
learned counsel. 

Mr. Lincoln was himself a lawyer, but he was something 
more. He was a statesman and a ruler, born, educated, 
trained, and prepared for the precise emergency in which he 
now found himself. He possessed a thorough knowledge of 
and an unfaltering confidence in a people who would be ready 
to sustain him in almost any imaginable course of action which 
should express and accomplish their vehement but altogether 
intelhgent and righteous '^'ill. 

So complete was Mr. Lincoln's moral and mental prepara- 
tion that the famous "first proclamation calling for troops" 
was written by his own hand and was on its way over the 
country by mail and telegraph before that Sunday was over. 
It bore date of Monday, the 15th of April, 1861, and is a sort 
of crystallization in words of the President's exact mind and 
purpose. It was as follows : 



224 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

" Peoclamation 
" By the President of the United States. 

"Whereas, The laws of the United States have been for 
some time past and now are opposed, and the execution thereof 
obstructed, in the States of South CaroHna, Alabama, Georgia, 
Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too 
powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial 
proceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals by law : 
IS'ow therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution 
and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call 
forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the 
aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to sup- 
press said combinations and to cause the laws to be duly ex- 
ecuted. 

" The details for this object wiU be immediately communi- 
cated to the State authorities through the War Department. 
I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this 
e£Fort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and existence of our 
National Union and the pei-petuity of popular government, 
and to redress wrongs aheady long enough endured. I deem 
it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces 
hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, 
places, and property which have been seized from the Union, 
and in every event the utmost care will be observed consist- 
ently with the objects aforesaid to avoid any devastation, any 
destruction of or interference with property, or any disturb- 
ance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country ; and I 
hereby command the persons composing the combinations 
aforesaid to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective 
abodes within twenty days from this date. 

" Deeming that the present condition of public affairs pre- 
sents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the 



WAR. 225 

power in me vested by the Constitution, convene botli Houses 
of Congress. Senators and Representatives are therefore sum- 
moned "to assemble at their respective chambers at twelve 
o'clock noon on Thursday, the fourth day of July next, then 
and there to consider and determine such measures as in 
their wisdom the public safety and interest may seem to 
demand. 

" In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

"Done at the city of "Washington, this fifteenth day of 
April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-one, and of the independence of the United States the 
eighty-fifth. Abeaham Lestcoln. 

" By the President, 

" William H. Sewaed, Secretary of State." 

The actual writing of this extraordinary document was done 
in the few hours which followed the arrival of the news of the 
fall of Fort Sumter, but it presents no marks of sudden or 
hasty work. It was the result of thoughtful preparation, and 
is the condensed expression of deliberate statesmanship. 

At that very hour nothing could be more sure than that 
Virginia and North Carolina would at once join the Confeder- 
acy, and that the national capital, Avith all that it contained, 
would speedily require armed defenders. That these were 
ready to come at the call of the President was also instantly 
known. 

The first effect of the Sumter gim was felt in the Cabinet of 
Mr. Lincoln, which was imified by the same event which made 
it otherwise possible for him to go forward in utter disregard 
of legal technicalities. He was at once endowed witli all the 
powers latent in his responsibilities or implied by the necessi- 
ties of the case ; and he was in mind and wiU fuUy prepared to 
employ them. 

It was needful for him to assume dictatorial authority, and 



226 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the people tacitly expected of him that he should do so. He 
did it, but did it so strictly in accordance with the plain logic 
of the situation that neither he nor the popular masses who 
obeyed him perceived that he had done so. This, too, although 
the portentous fact of his dictatorship was urged upon them 
both, from that time forward, by a host of busy tongues and 
pens, in the press, in legislative bodies, in courts of law, and in 
the halls of the national Congress. 



TEE GREAT AWAEE2s^mG. 227 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE GREAT AWAKE]STNG. 

A Steady Hand— The Rebellion extending— The Loyal North— The Bal- 
timore Mob — Rebellion in Maryland — Confederate Hopes and Failures 
— Peril of Washington — Arrival of Troops from the North — The 
Gateway to the North — Arrival of the New York Seventh — Capture 
of Baltimore — Case of Col. Robert E. Lee — Secession of Virginia — 
Call for Three Years' Volunteers — Crushing of Secession in Maryland. 

On the 6tli of March, 1861, the Confederate Congress had 
passed a law for the establishment of " The Army of the Con- 
federate States of America." From that time forward the 
armed forces of the Rebellion ceased to be " State troops," 
defending State rights or the boimdary lines or the territorial 
integrities of States. 

The proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, therefore, did not at all 
refer to or deal with commonwealths or communities, or even 
the doctrine of secession, but with imlawful combinations of 
individuals banded for an assault upon the national life and 
the plunder of national property. 

Wliile the States of the North, as such, were called upon to 
furnish their quotas of militia, the same summons was ad- 
dressed in set terms to such of the border and Southern States 
as could be reached, and to all " loyal citizens," for it was to 
the people as a mass that the President looked for support. A 
feeble cry arose in some quarters that the judiciary should in 
some manner have been appealed to, but the cumbrous machi- 
nery of the courts was set aside by the obvious fact of its in- 
sufficiency, and the cries died into silence. There were many 
who, with greater appearance of sound reason, were eager for 
an immediate assembling of Congress ; but, in Mr. Lincoln's 
knowledge and perception, a large part of the membership of 
that body had need of special education through the sure course 



228 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

of coming events before they could safely be trusted to help or 
hinder. The wisest heads in either House were j)robably the 
least in haste to meet these others in council. The day for 
their gathering was judiciously and firmly postponed accord- 
ingly. 

The Executive would certainly require eighty days to cut 
out for Congress such work as it would need to do when it 
should assemble. 

The proclamation contains but one breath of the suppressed 
indignation to which Mr. Lincoln had given no iitterance dur- 
ing those long and patient days, weeks, months of waiting and 
endurance. The forces were to be used for purposes set forth 
" and to redress wrongs already long enough endured." 

He could not wisely have then said more ; but the words 
meant a great deal coming from him. 

The call for State militia was nominally based upon the Act 
of 1795, and was promptly responded to by the governors of 
all the free States. Yirgmia answered by " seceding" on the 
lYth of April, in secret session of her State Convention, and in 
open session on the 22d, adding an empty and yet to Mr. Lin- 
coln's military plans a very useful provision for submitting the 
question to a popular vote on the 23d of May. IS'orth Caro- 
lina, Arkansas, and Tennessee rapidly sent back similar repHes 
and cast their fortunes with the Rebellion. The governor of 
Kentucky returned only a contemptuous refusal to furnish the 
quota of troops called for by the President, and Maryland 
almost immediately blazed out into open and dangerous revolt. 

All this was hardly more than had been expected, and caused 
no pang of disappointment ; but the dark and threatening pic- 
ture had its brighter side. The people of the iN'orth had heard 
the Sumter gun, and its fuU meaning was interpreted to them 
by the President's proclamation. Long months of refusal to 
beheve that the Secessionists were in earnest, — months of 
anxious suspense and benumbing doubt — were terminated fitly 



THE GREAT AWAKENING. 229 

"by a few short hours of bewilderment. Sunday passed under 
that cloud, but on Monday morning, April 15th, the Nation 
awoke, and accepted the war for the Union with a burst of 
enthusiastic patriotism which astonished the world. Party 
lines seemed to melt away in the fierce heat of the sudden ex- 
citement. In every nook and comer of the loyal areas, as well 
as in the larger towns and cities, men flocked together by a 
common impulse, eagerly offering themselves to defend their 
country in what to them was its suddenly discovered peril. 
Mothers gave their sons; wives hastened the steps of their 
husbands. The recruiting offices were thronged as if by mobs. 
The very pulpits and prayer-meetings were all on fire with de- 
votion to a cause which at once took upon itself sacredness, as 
the cause of the whole human race for all time to come, sure to 
have the blessing of Almighty God. If armed men could 
have telegraphed themselves to Washington, the city would 
have been garrisoned instantaneously. 

The first visible help arrived on the 18th, in the shape of one 
hastily gathered regiment of Pennsylvania militia, unarmed and 
half equipped. They had been hurried off on the spur of the 
moment, and passed through Baltimore so unexpectedly as to 
meet no open opposition. The passions whose expression their 
unarmed ranks barely escaped rose hotly behind them and were 
only too well prepared for the next-comers. 

These were very near. On the morning of the 16th of 
April the Massachusetts Sixth Regiment mustered upon Bos- 
ton Common, perfectly equipped for action. It was on the 
cars for Washington by Wednesday evening, the 17th. It 
passed through New York on the ISth, marching do^vn Broad- 
way between excited thousands on either hand, and singing as 
it swung along that strange refrain which had arisen, no one 
knew whence, — 



" John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in the grave, 
\ His soul goes marching on !" 



230 ABRAUAM LINCOLN. 

Their passage through the great commercial center of the 
country gave a sort of rallying-point for the city's loyalty, 
which was to be intensified the day following by the starting of 
the Kew York Seventh Kegiment for the beleaguered national 
capital. Meantime the Massachusetts regiment passed on, and 
on the morning of the 19th, the anniversary of the battle of Lex- 
ington, it entered the city of Baltimore, Maryland. A misun- 
derstanding between the railway officials and the regimental 
commander resulted in an attempt to convey the troops through 
the city in the cars they occupied, so dividing their strength 
and caging them instead of giving them fair play as a solid body. 

The Baltimore mob was braver against imprisoned and sepa- 
rated squads than it would have been against a strong column 
of marching men. A murderous assault was made upon these 
citizens of Massachusetts, whose only offense, even against a 
proslavery mob, was the obvious fact of their ready patriotism. 
]^o resistance was made by the troops until self-preservation 
rendered the use of arms compulsory. There was some firing 
done ; a few were killed and more were wounded on both sides ; 
the city police came to the rescue and did their duty admirably, 
headed by the mayor and the city marshal. The self-control 
and disciplined good conduct of the troops is emphasized by the 
fact that the mayor himself, marching at their head, took a rifle 
from a soldier and shot down one of the rioters whose intem- 
perate zeal was prematurely endangering the deep-laid plot of 
the conspirators for the secession of Maryland. The subse- 
quent course of both mayor and marshal threw much light - 
upon the disaster sustained that day by the Confederacy at the 
hands of the over-hasty Baltimore mob. 

The regiment made its way through and reached Washing- 
ton ; and the Baltimore gateway to the North was shut behind 
them : but tliis was before the men who closed it were at all 
prepared to keep it so. 

Still, they did their very best to repair their error. There 
had been many public secession-meetings already in Balti- 



THE GEE AT AWAKENING. 231 

more and at other places tkroiigliout the State. That very 
evening a monster gathering was held in the city, and the &vi\ 
spirit of the mob entered into and took possession of the au- 
thorities. Even the governor of the State, hitherto regarded as 
unswervingly " loyal," openly announced his readiness to " bow 
to the will of the people," and declared that " he would rather 
lose his right arm than raise it to strike a sister-State," mean- 
ing, of course, a rebellious, slave-holding State. The mUitia of 
Maryland seemed, therefore, likely indeed to be called out, but 
not to be put under the command of Abraham Lincoln. 

Hardly an hour after the adjournment of the meeting, at 
midnight of the 19th, secret orders went out, with men for 
their execution, headed by the Baltimore city marshal, to 
bum the nearest bridges leading from tlie free States into 
Maryland. Before daylight half a dozen of the more important 
bridges had been destroyed ; telegraph-wires were severed ; 
armed patrols were riding hither and thither ; the rebel element 
throughout the State was notified that the hour to strike had 
come ; and the city of Washington was placed in a state of 
semi-siege between an organized rebellion and a bloodthirsty 
mob in swift process of organization. Had there been one 
man among the Maryland rebels fit to lead a battahon, the peril 
to Washington would have been extreme. They had a surplus 
of demagogues but no leader. 

Such were some of the first-fruits of the proclamation. 
Precisely similar events, large and small, were occurring in the 
West and Center, but their recital would add nothing to this 
illustration of Mr. Lincoln's position, and it required no prophet 
to predict the nature of those which now must shortly follow. 

It did not even require the mind of a statesman or a mili- 
tary leader to understand that promptness and energy on the 
part of the rebel leaders, coupled with, a moderate degree of 
the unscrupulous daring they had already exliibited, would 
surely result in the capture of Washington. They had formed 
the purpose so definitely and indulged the hope so strongly 



232 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

that the Rebel Secretary of War publicly asserted that the Con- 
federate Stars and Bars would float from the national Capitol 
befoi-e the first of May. He could not have set forth more 
plainly the fact that the war waged by himself and his associates 
was essentially a war of aggression and conquest and not at all 
for the mere defense of imperiled State lines. He did but 
underrate his ability to move troops to North Carolina and Yir- 
ginia, forget the only haK-seceded position of the latter State, 
and overestimate the capacity and courage of the Maryland con- 
spirators. The latter, indeed, were frightened and disconcerted 
unreasonably by the premature explosion of their own mob. 

Virginia, still nominally acting as an independent State, re- 
sponded to the supposed necessities of Maryland by sending 
on at once two thousand muskets and promising twenty heavy 
guns. She was urged to this by Mr. Jefferson Davis even be- 
fore the adoption by the people of her formal act of secession. 

In spite of Mr. Lincoln's confidence and courage, and the 
unflinching patriotism of those around him, these were anxious 
days in the capital of the Repubhc. The very oflice-seekers 
called for arms and formed temporary military organizations. 
They encamped in the halls of pubhc buildings, in the legisla- 
tive chambers at the Capitol, and in the reception-rooms of the 
Executive Mansion. It is quite possible that the numbers and 
military efficiency of these brave and willing but entirely un- 
disciplined mobs were happily exaggerated in the minds of the 
rebel authorities. 

Mr. Lincoln went on steadily, unswervingly, with the tre- 
mendous work he had on hand. His faith in the patriotism of 
the loyal people was absolutely unbounded, and he framed all 
measures accordingly. Every hour that passed saw the vast 
machinery of the new government he was creating take form 
and order under his diligent direction, and the preparations 
made for the days to come were on a plan both broad and deep. 
Man after man was chosen, appointed, and ordered to duty. 
The several departments were alive with busy and trustworthy 



TUE GEE AT AWAKENISG. 233 

toilers, -while in almost every room of every civic bureau there 
appeared some ominous token, such as a rifle and a cartridge- 
box, that its occupant was prepared to defend his right to be 
there. There was at least no opportunity left for the arising 
of a pro-slavery mob in "Washington, or for the success of any 
other than a well-led attack by a competent and disciphned 
force of the public enemy. Mere mihtia and guerrillas would 
indeed have been out of the question, but the Confederate 
leaders must have strangely miscalculated their resources in not 
being ready to avail themselves of an opportunity so golden. 

It was rapidly slipping away from them, never to return. 
The Eighth Massachusetts Eegiment arrived in Philadelphia 
April 19th, under command of General Butler, and the New 
York Seventh, under Colonel Lefferts, on the 20th. 

These troops were thoroughly drilled and equipped, and 
quite capable of facing and scattering any mob ; but it would 
have been a foolish deed to waste one hfe among them in the 
streets of Baltimore. It would also have been a political and 
military blunder. Mr. Lincoln was bitterly blamed at the time 
for " not forcing a passage and teaching the rebels a lesson ;" 
but he had not lost an atom of his calm, wise courage. He 
knew how much of the current feeling in Baltimore and 
tliroughout Maryland was mere excitement and temporary 
effervescence. He knew it would cool and subside unless some- 
thing hot and hasty should be done to keep it stirred up. He 
is said to have " yielded to the urgent request of the governor" 
that no more troops should be forwarded through Maryland 
and especially through Baltimore. He did nothing of the kind. 
He did but follow the dictates of the plainest common-sense 
and refuse to be influenced by resentment or passion, or by the 
counsels of angry patriots who were not — as he was — directly 
responsible for consequences. 

The two Union commanders were promptly informed of the 
bridge-burning and of the fact that another road could be 
opened to Washington by way of Annapolis and Chesapeake 



234 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Bay. Tliey set out at once by different routes, Gen. Butler 
arriving at Annapolis on the 21st, and Colonel Lefferts on the 
22d. As a matter of course they were met by a protest from 
the governor of Maryland warning them not to land ; but the 
protest had no trooj)S behind it and occasioned no delay in get- 
ting the two regiments on shore. The governor also at once 
addressed a letter to the President, asking that the troops 
should be promptly removed. He also betrayed his bewil- 
dered state of mind by suggesting that the British Minister 
should be requested to " mediate" between the national gov- 
ernment and its rebels in arms. 

Through windows like this insane suggestion it is possible to 
obtain a view of the existing vagueness of ideas, in the minds 
of even educated men, as to the very first principles of national 
entity and human government. An answer was sent through 
the Secretary of State, and the trooj)S were not removed. 

The ]N"ew York Seventh was ordered to "Washington, and 
General Butler remained to keep open the gateway to the 
North. He made it much vsdder in a few days. So small was 
the disposable force at "Washington that Mr. Lincoln had few 
men to spare to hold the road by which the Seventh was to 
come. There was a serious doubt if the District militia, now 
sworn in as three-months volunteers, could be depended upon 
for service outside of the narrow area they supposed them- 
selves sworn to defend. Two companies only, " A" and " B," 
of the third battalion, the JSTational Rifles and the German 
company before mentioned, volunteered their services, and 
those who saw them march away looked upon their undertak- 
ing as a sort of " forlorn hope." They did their duty without 
discovering any danger, and the Seventh arrived in safety on the 
25th. The exuberant hopes of the Washington secessionists 
went down somewhat as those faultless lines of bayonets came 
glittering down the avenue to pass in review before the Presi- 
dent. Still, as before, so then and afterwards, the secessionists 
were freely permitted to speak treason and write it, and to 



THE GREAT AWAKENING. 235 

come and go unhindered. Nothing else really galled some of 
them quite so much as this feature of indifEerence in Hji\ Lin- 
coln's policy. 

During all this time the rebel flag floated from the roof of 
Ai-lington House, the family mansion of General Lee, just 
across the Potomac, in full view of the city. The proposal of 
a squad of the District mihtia to go and take it down was in- 
stantly negatived as an unwise irritation of the people of Vir- 
ginia. The "guard" for the defense of the Long Bridge 
over the Potomac never numbered more than twenty men at a 
time, prior to the 25th of April. 

On the 20th, with or without good reason, the great nav}-- 
yard at Gosport, Virginia, was burned and abandoned by the 
small national force in charge of it, with all its costly appli- 
ances and a number of ships upon which the rebel government 
had securely counted as the commencement of its " navy." A 
similar fate had overtaken the United States arsenal at Har- 
per's Ferry, Virginia, on the 18th. In the West a state of af- 
fairs existed which imitated remarkably the local chaos at the 
corresponding points in the East. Everywhere Mr. Lincoln 
was appealed to by both friends and enemies, and at every 
point he exhiljited the same steadiness, good temper, and sound 
judgment. It was a task of extraordinary difiiculty, and the 
results obtained bear striking witness of its wise and faithful 
performance. 

The Annapolis route to "Washington continued open, nor 
could there now be any successful effort on the part of the 
Maryland secessionists to prevent further reinforcements of all 
sorts from pouring into the city they had so narrowly failed to 
win. They still retained undisputed control of Baltimore and 
of the greater part of the State, but were not able to receive 
further supplies of military material from the South. At the 
same time, numbers of their most active and dangerous spirits 
were continually leaving them to seek employment in the army 
under Jefferson Davis. The State Legislature was in session 



236 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

at Frederick, but contained just enough of loyal leaven, acting 
with and upon its " conservative" and timid elements, to induce 
delay and irresolution in all its action until the hour for suc- 
cessful treason had gone by. 

President Lincoln authorized General Butler to suspend the 
writ of habeas corpus in certain districts, but no strictly mili- 
tary movement was attempted until May 13. Then, under 
cover of a storm and the approach of night. General Butler, 
with less than a thousand men, suddenly entered Baltimore, 
seized a position from which his guns commanded the city, and 
effected a complete capture of it without the loss of a man. 
It was a deed the success of wliich justified its apparently reck- 
less daring. 

The " siege of Washington" was raised, the State of Mary- 
land was forever lost to the Confederacy, and its population 
generally, if slowly, ranged themselves among the assured sup- 
porters of the national authority. The possible line of subse- 
quent conflict at once drifted Southward from the banks of 
the Chesapeake to those of the Potomac, and the entire aspect 
of affairs changed. 

A striking illustration of the difficulty under which Mr. Lin- 
coln began his work and the darkness he was in as to whom he 
could employ and trust as servants of the new government is 
afforded by the case of Colonel Kobert E. Lee, of the regular 
army. So complete had been the confidence reposed in this 
man's honor and patriotism, and so carefully had he abstained 
from giving any token of disloyalty, that, as late as April 20, 
he was informally offered the command of the Union forces 
about to take the field. His response was a resignation of his 
commission in the army, dated the same day. Three days later 
he was formally installed as commander of the State forces of 
Yirginia. These were turned over to the " Army of the Con- 
federacy" on the 24th of May, and he with them, to receive at 
once a commission as full " general " under the Eebel flag. No 
doubt he acted in accordance with his ideas of his duty to the 



THE GREAT AWAKENING. 237 

State in which he had happened to be bom and which was 
more sacred in his eyes than was the government to which he 
had sworn allegiance ; but his course throws a lurid light upon 
the harassing perils of Mr. Lincoln's position. While such 
lessons of caution as this were daily given and received in the 
most surprising manner, a wise reticence kept most of them 
from the immediate knowledge of the nation at large. 

The President's proclamation called for State mihtia, in 
nominal accordance with laws which were considered by many 
jurists to be severely strained by the summons. The troops 
were rapidly coming forward, but the force they would consti- 
tute could be but Httle better than a temporary expedient, as 
their term of ser\'ice was but ninety days. The entire atten- 
tion of the public mind was concentrated upon and absorbed 
by the several State contingents, and small notice was bestowed 
upon a much more important exercise of the latent powers of 
the national executive. 

Mr. Lincoln's experience in the Blackhawk War, brief as it 
was, had taught him a vitally important lesson as to the nature, 
value, and melting-away tendencies of all such extemporized 
armies. Xeither had he read the history of the Revolutionary 
War so carefully in his boyhood, ^\^thout storing his mind with 
its most important mihtary Isssons. Precisely the difficulties 
which at times so paralyzed the genius of Washington were 
right before him now, and he prepared for them in advance. 

Volunteers were freely offering, all over the Korth, and it 
was but ten days after issuing the proclamation, or on April 
26, that Mr. Lincoln sent out official notiiications through 
the War Department that a certain number of these, 44,034, 
would be accepted " for three years or during the war." He 
had no warrant of law, apparently, for any increase of the reg- 
ular army or navy, but he had at the same time called for 
22,714 "regulars" and 18,000 seamen. 

All this was somewhat quietly done ; but the E'orthem allies 
of the rebels in arms did not fail to express their opinion of it 



238 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

openly and very freely. In tlieir eyes, and as expressed by 
their tongues and pens, it was the unscrupulous deed of a 
tyrant, a dictator, a would-be autocrat. There was in it, in- 
deed, a good deal of that patriotic autocracy which refused to 
let the nation lie still and be murdered while thousands of 
wilKng hearts were offering strong hands to defend it. 

The acceptances of men were by no means rigidly Hmited to 
the terms of the first War Ofiice orders, and it was soon safe 
to say that there would be an army in the field after the militia 
regiments should serve their time and go home. 

After all, one of the most imj)ortant matters was that noth- 
ing should be done too audaciously startling and suggestive of 
" aggression and invasion." 

The incipient rebellion in Maryland was now completely 
crushed. The dangerous elements were weeded out of the 
State Legislature, a little, by a few salutary arrests. There 
was no longer any peril threatening the city of Washington in 
the rear. Nevertheless, the Confederate flag still flaunted in 
the face of the national capital from the roof of Arlington 
House as late as May 23, eighty days after President Lincoln's 
inauguration. There was nothing except the date of the Yir- 
ginia election to prevent the planting of a rebel battery in 
General Lee's front yard. Such a battery would have been 
within easy range of all the government buildings, and would 
have commanded the Long Bridge over the Potomac, with all 
its northern approaches. The range of low elevations on the 
Virginia shore of the Potomac was evidently calling loudly for 
occupation. Advices from the South added strength to all 
considerations based upon military science, but not one step 
was visibly taken which could appear to threaten, much less to 
assail, " the rights of a sovereign State," until she should for- 
mally divest herself of them. No soHtary Virginia voter was 
afforded a fresh pretext for casting his misguided ballot in favor 
of the " Ordinance of Secession." 



OVER THE LONG BRIDGE. 239 



CHAPTEE XXX. 

OVER THE LOXG BRIDGE. 

Respects for State Rights — Secession of Virginia — Union Advance across 
the Potomac — Death of Ellsworth — The Beginning in West Virginia 
— The Old Flag disappears from the South — White House Life — War- 
time Illusions — Studies of future Battle-grounds— A Funeral in the East 
Room. 

Nothing could well exceed the closeness with which ]VIr. 
Lincoln watched the course of events at the South, or the logical 
sequence of the stejDS which he took in pursuance of each 
and every movement made by his adversaries. Up to this last 
hour, he had neither done nor authorized any proceeding, as to 
Virginia, which the most fanatical expounder of " State rights" 
could reasonably call in question. 

There was a small guard kept, to be sure, at the Long Bridge 
over the Potomac, to prevent its very possible destruction, but 
there was no vexatious interference with travel and traffic or 
even with the passage of Maryland stray volimteers for the 
rebel army. More than once, after nightfall, the squad of 
Union soldiers in charge at that point went hilariously over and 
hobnobbed with the Virginia State militia similarly posted at 
the old tavern on the other shore, and were hardly reprimanded 
by their officers for so doing. Even in the serious matters of 
the Gosport navy-yard and the Harper's Ferry arsenal, all 
pains were taken to avoid any open collision with the forces 
sent by the governor of Virginia for their seizure. Forbear- 
ance was carried to the utmost limit of endurance, but there it 
expired, strictly by limitation. 

In accordance with the action of the Virginia State Conven- 



240 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tion, tlie question of the secession of the State was submitted 
to a popular vote on the 23d of May. Except in what now 
constitutes the State of West Virginia, no such thing as a fair 
and free expression of the popular will was possible, for mili- 
tary movements had begun and military domination rendered 
the so-called " vote" a mere matter of form. There was little 
use in counting such a preordained collection as were those 
heaps of ballots. 

Nevertheless, although General Lee assumed command of 
the State troops on the 23d of April, and all men knew the use 
he would surely make of them, they could not be and were not 
turned over to the Confederate army, so losing their character 
as " State" troops, until the 24th of May. The Confederate 
leaders were therefore yet in some degree hindered by the con- 
stitutional and legal technicalities whose spirit and letter had 
been so much more carefully regarded by Mr. Lincoln. 

They were themselves seemingly j)rompt enough in their 
oijerations, so soon as their hands were untied, but they were 
not at all prepared for the electric suddenness and energy of 
his final action. 

The Yirginia Convention's Act of Secession was duly con- 
firmed by the formal election-returns, not yet made up but 
perfectly well known, at the setting of the sun on May 23, 
1861. Within one hour afterwards there were columns of 
United States troops in motion towards the Northern shore of 
the Potomac and the Washington end of the Long Bridge. 
Before midnight a light force of scouts and skirmishers crossed 
the bridge and began to feel their way down towards Alexan- 
dria. This advance consisted of but one company, barely sixty 
men all told, and all the armed opposition they met or saw was 
a mere squad of mounted Virginia militia who rode hurriedly 
away without firing a shot. By two o'clock a.m., the same 
night, three full regiments had crossed the Potomac at George- 
town, D. C; four more by the Long Bridge ; and one, Ells- 
worth's Zouaves, had gone directly to Alexandria by steamer, 



OVER THE LONG BRIDGE. 241 

vnth one war-vessel as a convoy. By dayliglit every position 
aimed at had been occupied without hindrance. The stupid 
murder of the brave and lamented Ellsworth by a tavern- 
keeper in Alexandria was merely an expression of individual 
ferocity, such as afterwards made severe measures necessary at 
times in dealing with certain elements of the population of the 
South. 

Forty-eight hours later two regiments from General Mc- 
Clellan's command crossed into Western Virginia at WheeHng, 
to support the Union men who were rising throughout that 
region to defend themselves against Secession tyranny. 

The soldiers of the Union had come to stay, for the first 
duty imposed upon those who had crossed the Potomac at 
Washington was the construction of strong earthworks upon 
the heights commanding the approaches to the city. Even the 
Kew York Seventh, the kid-gloved favorites of the great me- 
tropolis, were at work with pick and spade on the " sacred soil 
of Virginia," in the early morning of the day after the old 
commonwealth surrendered its immunities as such and became 
a part of tlie new organism which styled itself the " Confeder- 
ate States of America." 

A similar comparison of dates with acts and occurrences of 
varied nature and locality would present a similar teacliing, 
but here is quite enough to illustrate clearly the sagacious pre- 
vision and careful preparation which were concealed under 
what was then considered by many "' Mr. Lincoln's unaccount- 
able dilatoriness." 

He was forbidden the luxury of exjDlaining his plans and 
purposes to the general public, including the public enemy. 
His immediate ad\'isers were not talking men, then or after- 
wards. He was compelled to steer carefully between the con- 
tinuous perils of over-haste and loss of time. In those all-im- 
portant first days of the long struggle, while paying no undue 
regard to legal technicalities of any kind, the twin-perils re- 
ferred to contained in themselves the necessity that no com- 



242 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



mimity or population should be treated as in rebellion until it 
had formally become so by its own express act and word. 

So far as State Conventions and Legislatures and their sup- 
plementary actions were concerned, the work of Secession was 
now complete. It is worthy of note that on the first day of 
June, 1861, the flag of the United States floated over only 
these few spots throughout all the vast territory ruled by 
President Jefferson Davis : the camps opposite Washington ; 
Fortress Monroe, Yirgiuia ; Fort Pickens, Key West, and Gar- 
den Key, in the State of Florida. (West Virginia and East 
Tennessee can hardly be counted as having been at any time or 
by their own will part and parcel of th^ Confederacy, and are 
therefore excepted.) From every other place, fort, navy-yard, 
arsenal, pubhc building, private house, it had disappeared, and 
the vast majority of the people of the civilized world believed 
that it had so disappeared forever. What is sometimes de- 
scribed by politicians as "a good working majority and no 
more" of the people of tlie free States were utterly deter- 
mined that it should one day go back again. 

Mr. Lincoln had now been in Washington three full months, 
and the routine movement of his daily life had become well 
estabhshed. He had not materially changed his personal habits. 
He was as careless as ever concerning his dress, and retained 
liis free, familiar ways "^ith his nearer friends. His distaste 
was as strong as ever for mere ceremonial, social formalities, 
etiquette of ranlc, outward insignia of place and power. He 
increased with iron endurance his steady, tii-eless industry, his 
patient investigation of all subjects which his duties, present or 
to come, might bring before him. It was needful that he 
should not be too easy of access ; but if he had business at any 
bureau of any Department, he was not at all unlikely to attend 
to it in person. He more than once did so, somewhat to the 
discomflture of inattentive subordinates. 

He labored under one disadvantage, perhaps, as a ruler. If 
he met a governor, a general, a foreign diplomat, a visitor of 



OVER THE LO^'G BRIDGE. 243 

especial distinction, it was out of Ms power to look upon the 
great personage before liim as other or more or less than a 
human being like himseK or any other man so to be met and 
spoken to. Some of the dissatisfaction caused in this way has 
been duly recorded by the sufferers. 

He retained in all its freshness his love for children. If a 
child was led past him at a public " reception," he was apt to 
take it up and kiss it and give it a kind word as simply and even 
a little more eagerly than if he had met the child of some old 
neighbor on the sidewalk of his own street in Springfield. 

The business offices of the Executive Mansion were in the 
second story, and were but three in number, with ante-rooms 
for the accommodation of visitors in waiting. One very large 
room, fronting southward, had been " the President's room" 
ever since the house was built. Next to this, on the east, was 
a narrow room in wliich the Private Secretary performed his 
doul^le duty of defending the President from needless intrusion 
and of acting almost as a second President in a host of minor 
matters. Across the hall was another room of like dimensions, 
occupied by the two assistant secretaries and such clerical help 
as was sometimes given them. To this latter room, indeed, 
Mr. Lincoln sometimes fled for refuge from the pressure he 
could not escape in his own. Adjoining this was a large sleep- 
ing-room, also sometimes temporarily applied to more strictly 
official uses. 

Mr. Lincoln had shown his usual wisdom in selecting the 
confidential servants of liis own office. They were all yoimg 
men of sufficient capacity and education for their duties, but 
were without other associations or ambitions than such as 
bound them to himself. He could and did put utter con- 
fidence in them, and there was in the feehng with which they 
all regarded him something quite as strong as any tie of blood 
could possibly have been. 

Mr. Lincoln's old friend Colonel Ward H. Lamon, and after- 
wards other officials, had at first somewhat of the external man- 



244 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

agement of social " state affairs" in the White House, but they 
were not actual members of Mr. Lincoln's small and unpre- 
tending household. Only his family and its guests took their 
meals in the house. 

From the very beginning Mrs. Lincoln assumed and held her 
rightful position as lady of the mansion ; nor was it always easy 
to designate the precise limit of her authority. It was never 
in the world easy to do this as to the wife of any private citi- 
zen, the lady having a will of her own. An understanding of 
the fact that neither Mr. nor Mrs. Lincoln for a long time f uUy 
grasped the idea that they were no longer " private citizens" 
furnishes a complete key to the solution of much which then 
and afterwards excited curious comment. 

Much more than most of those around him, Mr. Lincoln had 
internally formulated his clear comprehension of the intense 
and stern realities with which he was dealing. Crowds of eager 
apphcants begged and pleaded and all but fought with one 
another for the offices in his gift. Deputations called upon 
him to express in various ways the exuberance of their patriot- 
ism. Regiment after regiment came marching gayly down 
Pennsylvania Avenue and passed in glittering review before 
him with a sort of " picnic and Fourth of July" expression 
upon their bright and brave young faces. Those about to die 
saluted him as if he had summoned them to some grand holi- 
day excursion. 

Upon one and all he looked sadly, kindly, earnestly, through 
eyes that were dim with seeing, far beyond their serried ranks 
and silken flags, the torn and bloody turf, the scattered corpses, 
the hfting powder-smoke of the inevitable battle-fields to come. 

In the large room where he worked through all the days 
and half through all the nights there was but Kttle furniture. 
Wliat there was had an old-time and half-faded look, and no 
great part of it had been added or altered since the days of 
President Jackson. The marks of the feet of that strong- 
headed enemy of treason and secession were plainly visible 



OYER THE LONG BRIDGE. 245 

upon the bricks above the fireplace uiitil these were removed. 
The favorite chair of the old hero, an easy, oddly shaped afiair 
of Mexican manufacture, was one of the heirlooms of the office 
from which he had bearded the South Carolina " nullifiers" of 
his own time. 

In one comer of the room was an upright frame of wood, 
upon which were many maps, conveniently mounted on spring- 
rollers. To this were afterwards added others of similar pat- 
tern. Folios of maps leaned against the walls or hid behind 
the sofas. Volumes of mihtary history and kindred literatm-e 
came and went from various libraries and had their days of 
Ipng around the room or on the President's table. He was an 
early riser and was apt to be at his toil before the humblest 
clerk on the national pay-rolls had eaten liis breakfast. That 
of the Chief Magistrate was very frequently brought to him in 
his office that he might lose no time, for now, as always, from 
his log-house cradle, he was a hard student. He knew every 
river, mountain-range, creek, hill, valley, on the broad areas 
through which the tides of the war were to ebb and flow. 
More than that, he made himself better than ever acquainted 
with the constituent elements of the local populations, their 
industries, tendencies, origins, wealths or poverties. Ko man 
living was endowed with a better capacity to digest, assimilate, 
and employ the multiform information he sought out so per- 
severingly. How important all this laborious study was to the 
nation can only be approximately estimated by means of an 
attempt to grasp and imagine the possible consequences of its 
neglect and absence. The niin, disgrace, misery, which would 
surely have resulted from ignorance-in-power striving to per- 
form the functions devolved upon Mr. Lincoln, form a picture 
from which the coldest critic might be glad to turn away. 

About one year later, in a private note to General McClellan, 
!Mr. Lincoln was able to say of an order he had given and was 
defending : " I ordered ... on the unanimous opinion of 
every military man I could get an opinion from, and every 



246 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

modern milita/ry loolc, — yourself only excepted." How many 
hours of intense, absorbed, brain-wearying application are im- 
plied in that simple but pregnant sentence ! 

There was something almost dreamhke and unreal about life 
in Washington for most men during those first three months 
of the new government. The very excitement and the tense- 
ness of the strain in which men's minds were held removed 
the life they were living so far away from any life which any 
of them had ever before lived or thought of living. 

The hazy atmosphere of semi-tragic unreality pervaded at 
last even the White House itself. The bright spring weather 
aided the effect of the increasing glitter of uniforms and flutter 
of flags and tlie all but ceaseless flow and crash of martial 
music from the noisy bands of the arriving regiments. 

There had been no battle fought since Fort Sumter was 
bombarded, and there were not wanting false prophets of 
peace to chirrup gayly that there would be no actual blood- 
shed. 

Through all this over-strained, unnatural, feverish, misty 
state of things came suddenly the tramp of the movement 
across the Potomac on the S-itli of May. Virginia threw 
open her gates by a vote of her people, and the Union troops 
marched in : but precious blood was spilled upon the threshold. 

The shot fired murderously by the Alexandria tavern-keeper 
struck a mark in the very household of the President. Colonel 
Ellsworth was but a boy of twenty-four, but he had won the 
admiration of the entire country by his genius and energy. 
He had journeyed to Washington with Mr. Lincoln, who had 
become warmly attached to him, and shortly afterwards ap- 
pointed him a second-lieutenant in the regular army. The 
regiment he raised among the firemen of N'ew York, under 
the call for volunteers, was considered second to none in its 
promise of usefulness under such a commander. He was a 
type and personal embodiment of the young manhood which 
was springing forward at the caU of their country's peril. He 



OYER THE L02;G BRIDGE. 247 

was, as such type and representative, to offer a bloody illustra- 
tion of the true meaning of the summons. 

The Sunday before the eventful day, Ellsworth was at the 
White House, less as a guest than as a well-loved member of 
the household. To the same place his body was borne after 
the murder, and the funeral ceremonies were held in the 
gaudy " East Koom," sadly dressed and draped for the occa- 
sion. 

That Mr. Lincoln grieved for his bright, genial, gifted young 
friend ; that all the sorrow he expressed for him was real, re- 
quires no saying. Nevertheless, to him as to the people gen- 
erally, the death of Ellsworth marked the end of a worn-out 
policy and the beginning of a new order of thoughts and feel- 
ings. 

A splendid regiment of "Ellsworth Avengers," the 44th 
New York Volunteers, was speedily formed, but the blood 
upon the Virginia threshold did not call for human vengeance. 
It did but witness before God and men that the day of com- 
promise, negotiation, dallying, delay, had passed, and that the 
day of wrath had come, — the day for which Mr. Lincoln had 
been buying ships and enlisting men ^dthout due form and 
warrant of statute law. 



248 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



THE EUEOPEAN QUESTION. 



The Secretary of State — England and France — Privateers and Piracy — The 
New Navy — "Whaling Schooners as "War Vessels. 

Mr. Lestcoln's education for tlie duties lie was now per- 
forming had been given liim through long and j)ainful pro- 
cesses by all of which he had faithfully profited, but his attain- 
ments were all in a pecuhar manner limited by the boundaries 
of his own country. He spoke no other than the Enghsh 
tongue. He knew little of other nations beyond a moderate 
acquaintance with their geography and history and some stray 
ideas conveyed to him by such representatives as they had sent 
to America as emigrants. From these latter, indeed, he had 
learned all they had to teach, and such acquisitions were of 
value to him now ; but all the emigrants had been men and 
women of " the people." 

Of the governing castes and classes of Europe, and of Euro- 
pean politics, the cesspool in which kings and their ministers 
dabbled and fished and groped for the prizes of war and diplo- 
macy, he knew almost nothing and cared but little more. 

He could but be aware that the great maritime nations of the 
Old World were watching with jealous eyes the growth of the 
new power in the West over which he had been called to rule, 
but he had great faith in the Atlantic Ocean and the supposa- 
ble common-sense of European statesmen. So great wae this 
faith of his that it came perilously near to leading him into an 
error. It would surely have done so but for the simple direct- 
ness of the doctrine he at once formulated for the government 
of the foreign policy of the United States. 



THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 249 

" This is our ovra. affair," lie said, in effect. " It is a family 
quarrel with which foreign nations have nothing to do, and 
they must let it alone." 

The practical details of the processes by which that doctrine 
was to be communicated to European powers were left almost 
altogether to the care of Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State. 
They could not have been intrusted to a brain more capable or to 
a heart more utterly worthy of the momentous trust. There was 
little need for Mr. Lincoln to add the State Department to his 
other burdens while its management was under such an eye and 
hand as those of the practised New York statesman. Here, at 
least, there was something in the nature of complete relief, 
and the weary ruler accepted it as frankly as it was given. 
The friendship between him and his " minister of foreign af- 
fairs," from the very first, assumed a warm and personal char- 
acter. The gossips who strove to give it any other significance, 
then or afterwards, did but testify their incapacity to under- 
stand the broad patriotism and generous mutual confidence of 
these two men. 

In training, as in natural gifts, Mr. Seward was as unlike 
Mr. Lincoln as he well could be ; but they had one thing in 
common and one tie of measureless brotherhood in their unsel- 
fish devotion to the performance of the great work which God 
had laid upon them. If, at first, they were a little slow, Mr. 
Seward somewhat the slower, in coming to a mutual under- 
standing of eacli other's character, aim, and purpose, that was 
all tlie more surely attained in the course of joint toil and 
counsel and anxiety. Together, each in his appointed place, 
they labored in harmony to the end. 

It was well known that one of the first acts of Mr. Davis, on 
assuming the reins of power, had been to dispatch emissaries 
to the more important coui-ts of Europe, notably to those of 
England and France. Much prehminary work, of a prepara- 
tory kind, had before that time been accomphshed by the un- 
official agents of the intended rebellion. A strong feeling of 



250 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

sympathy for tlie South had been most skillfully created. In 
Europe, as in America, the " War" had been in progress for 
months before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration. Up to the close 
of the Buchanan Administration the cause of the South had 
been vigorously served abroad, in not a few instances, by the 
official and accredited representatives of the ]S"ational Govern- 
ment at Washington. 

It was difficult, at first, for foreign diplomacy to find a place 
for the insertion of an entering wedge of interference. The 
stern directness of Mr. Lincoln's own policy was shortly to 
offer one, in such a shape as should present the most tempting 
bait and with it the most trying problem. As early as the 
lYth of April, 1861, three days after the surrender of Fort 
Sumter, Mr. Davis issued a proclamation offering " letters of 
marque and reprisal," under the seal of the Confederate States, 
to armed privateers of all nations. 

It was truly a tempting offer to the supposable pirates of 
Europe, but it was rendered somewhat less so, in about forty- 
eight hours, by the counter-proclamation of President Lincoln. 
This document contained a deal of salutary warning and had a 
most beneficial effect. It notified the " privateers" invited by 
Mr. Davis that they would be " held amenable to the laws of 
the United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy." 

This declaration was in strict accordance with the more re- 
cent utterances of the great commercial powers and with the 
treaties they had mutually entered into. At the same time a 
rigid blockade was declared of all the ports of the States then 
included in the Confederacy. Those of Virginia and IS'orth 
Carolina were added in due time. 

The most vigorous efforts were made to render the blockade 
effective. Ships were fitted out and put to sea even more 
rapidly than regiments on land were raised and equipped. 
The new navy of the United States was in the active perform- 
ance of its sudden duties before the first company of skirmish- 
ers marched across the Long Bridge. 



THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 251 

Of naval afiairs, as snch, Mr. Lincoln knew but little. He 
had never been upon salt water nor examined a vessel of war. 
He had, however, studied with care and acquired an intimate, 
practical knowledge of the navigation of the great rivers of the 
West. These latter and their flotilla, present and prospective, 
were judiciously loosened somewhat from the control of the 
Navy Department. They remained to the end under the es- 
pecial care of the man who had himself been a " river-pilot," 
who had made and managed flatboats, and who had mastered 
problems of fresh-water navigation which would have been 
new and strange to the most accomplished seaman in the At- 
lantic squadron. 

There was little difficulty in obtaining the services of all de- 
sirable sea-going vessels, owing to the panic created among the 
commercial classes by the Confederate threat of privateering. 
Owners were eager to place their ships and steamers under the 
national flag, whether by sale or charter. There M'ere notable 
instances of patriotic liberality in this direction, but there were 
more of a kind hardly so creditable to human nature. These 
latter may be fairly illustrated by the case of a Connecticut 
merchant who urged Mr. Lincoln to purchase '* for war pur- 
poses" a batch of worn-out whaling-schooners. No longer fit 
to deal with a whale, they were just the thing in which a crew 
of brave men under government pay could pursue, fight, cap- 
ture, a fleet of French or English armed steamers under the 
rebel flag. 

Mr. Lincoln preferred to look on the ludicrous side of such 
incidents as this and a hundred other manifestations of stupid 
greed which daily came before him. He was genuinely glad 
to be able to do so. He freely declared, to more than one who 
conversed with him, that the most important relief to his 
heavy load of care and anxiety was that which he found in his 
capacity for enjo}'ing fun for its own sake. He could still teU 
a story or laugh at a joke, and he could still use either as a 
weapon or a shield. In any form of employment they per- 



252 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

formed invaluable uses. Those whose solemn shallowness ena- 
bles them to disregard the structure of the human mind and 
brain, or to confound the one with the other, will probably con- 
tinue to wonder at the trustworthy anecdotes of the President's 
unaccountable frivolity in those days of overstrain. 

The beetle sees a giant laugh while he is lifting a rock, and 
indignantly remarks to the glow-worm at his side : " The fel- 
low is indecent. You or I would have done it with due sol- 
emnity." 



BULL RUN. 253 



CHAPTEE X XX n. 



BULL EUN. 



Checker- board Campaign Plans— On to Richmond— The Two Armies- 
Dissolved Militia — Congressional Legislation Under Sudden Pressure 
— The President's Message — Five Hundred Thousand Men. 

The growth and development of the people of the United 
States up to the outbreak of the Eebellion had been attained 
through processes peculiarly peaceful. On the first day of 
June, 1861, it could have been said of them all, both Xorth 
and South of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, that no one of 
their characteristics was more distinctly marked than their ig- 
norance of war. The hving generation had no memory or 
knowledge of its effects, and the idea that it might be or that 
it involved a distinct science had dawned upon but few minds 
among them. 

The next most important fact, politically, was the stone- 
blindness of the masses to the fact of their own ignonmce. 

The South believed itself essentially martial, and a great 
deal had latterly been done to make it so. It was in vastly 
better condition for warlike purposes than was the Korth, and 
the people of the latter section were ignorant of this fact also. 

All over the free States the newspaper editors and local ora- 
tors, great and small, dabbled fiercely in patriotic statesman- 
ship. They united in assuring the President that they had 
supplied him ^vith "an anny," and that he was in duty bound 
to crash the Rebelhon ^vith it. The prevalent idea of army- 
movements appears to have been borrowed from the black and 
white squares of a checker-board and their easily transferable 
" buttons." Substitute the seceded territory for the checker- 



254 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

board, and the President's obvious business was to win the 
game at once, while so many eager people were looking on and 
were waiting impatiently to see him do it. 

The cry of " On to Richmond !" now began to rise, with a 
full-throated volume which threatened to drown the explana- 
tory reply that there were many brave men, with rifles in their 
hands, standing right in the way. 

A badly managed skirmish at Big Bethel, Virginia, on the 
10th of June, costing several valuable lives, did but whet the 
popular appetite for military activity. Little affairs of even 
less bloodshed, but with more important results, took place in 
West Yirginia. The "battle of Boonville," Missouri, was 
faintly fought and fled from by the Rebel mihtia on the lYth 
of June, and it was urged that the Confederate forces between 
"Washington and Richmond would scatter as promptly as their 
Western brethren, if advanced upon in a similar manner. 

Mr. Lincoln did not share in this delusion, but both he and 
his military counselors were aware that there were positions 
of great strategic importance which might well be seized and 
occupied, with a view to further operations. The most im- 
portant of these, as was afterwards proved, was the one upon 
which the first movement was planned by the generals on both 



Manassas Junction was the point where the railroad from 
Alexandria, on the Potomac, met the railway connecting the 
rest of Yirginia with the Shenandoah Yalley. It had been 
feebly occupied by the State militia of Yirginia, even before 
the secession of that commonwealth, and it was made a rallying- 
point for subsequent levies. About the first of June, 1861, 
General Beauregard, of the Confederate army, was sent to take 
command of the forces assembled for the protection of the 
Manassas lines. These were, therefore, the first obstruction in 
the way of any direct movement " on to Richmond." 

The Union troops were mainly composed of State militia, 
and these were all " three-months men." They included all the 



BULL RUN. 255 

-well-drilled and disciplined regiments, for the " regulars" were 
few indeed, and the volunteers were jet hardly fit for use as 
soldiers. The State-mihtia term of service was a most impor- 
tant factor in Mr. Lincoln's military calculations. It was so 
much so, that their melting away by reason of its expiration 
began before a blow could be struck. On the very eve of the 
battle of Bull Run, the Fourth Pennsylvania Eegiment and 
Yarian's Battery of (^"ew York) Light Artillery were dis- 
missed and marched away from the field of battle because their 
time had run out. Others, similarly circumstanced, remained, 
and took their share of the work in hand. 

The forward movement called for by the country, and per- 
haps by mihtary as well as political necessity, was ordered, and 
was niade under General McDowell. With a dissolving army 
of less than twenty-eight thousand men and forty -nine guns, 
he fought an array of the best soldiers in the Confederacy, 
thirty-two thousand strong, with fifty-seven guns. Actual 
fighting began on the 18th of July, and it continued, with 
varied fluctuations, but with general good conduct of both 
officers and men on both sides, until the so-called " panic" of 
the Union troops. This took place on the afternoon of the 
21.st. By that time a large part of the Rebel forces had been 
60 severely handled that they were under a strong impression 
that they had l)een defeated. They were only a little less dis- 
organized for military puqioses than were their tired-out and 
routed imtagonists. It afterwards required some investigation 
to assure the Confederate commanders of their victory. Even 
when satisfied of the fact, they were in no condition to 
follow it up. The losses on both sides, ofiicially reported, 
were: United States— 25 guns, 481 men killed, 1011 wounded, 
14G0 prisoners sent to Richmond, including many wounded ; 
Confederates — 387 men killed, 1582 wounded, and a few pri- 
soners. 

It was a hard-fought action, and the " panic" was simply the 
disintegration of a number of regiments of raw troops, worn 



256 ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 

out with fatigue from marcliing, fighting, hunger, thirst, ex- 
tremely hot weather, and intense excitement. There was quite 
enough of the Union army left in good form, when all was 
over, to have checked any forward movement on the part of 
what was also left in good order of the forces it had been 
fighting with. The Confederate commanders were men of 
sense and were contented with reaping the harvest left in their 
possession in such a manner. 

They did well ; but the entire South went crazy with exulta- 
tion, after a fashion which, as its rulers afterwards openly 
stated, sadly interfered with all current plans and operations. 

Southern contempt for all men and things north of " Mason 
and Dixon's line" received a sudden and enormous inflation, and 
the impression went abroad that " the Yankees" would never 
presume to face " the Chivalry" again. 

"Washington city, for a number of days, was thronged with 
a mob of fugitive members of the shattered regiments. Every 
man of them had a fearful tale to tell and was anxious to get 
something to eat. To all appearance the cause of the Union 
had received a severe blow. There had been an undeniable 
defeat and what to some critics looked like a throwing away 
of men and guns and military prestige. The disaster was in 
appearance mainly, however, and Mr. Lincoln so understood it. 

The army beaten at Bull Run was, for its greater part, an 
improvised force, on the eve of disbandment. If it had there 
won never so complete a victory, it could hardly have been held 
together long enough to reap any other fruit thereof than the 
occupation of important positions. The majority of its per- 
sonal membership, stung by the memory of their disaster and 
as brave as ever, were only the more eager to rush into the 
permanent organizations of " three-years men." E'o victory 
could have done half so much towards suddenly converting 
them into steady and trusty veterans. The gain right here all 
but counterbalanced the seeming loss. At the Xorth, through 
every State, county, town, village, homestead, the effect was 



BULL RUN. 2o7 

instantaneous and most salutary. The editors were given 
something new to write about for a while, and the men of ac- 
tion poured in steadier, more angrily determined streams to- 
wards the Federal recruiting offices. The whole people were 
taught, as it were in one day, much of the real nature of the 
gage of battle they had accepted, and they did not flinch for a 
moment from the grisly truth so presented to them. 

To Mr. Lincoln himself, as a ruler, the fate of the mihtia 
army brought a tremendous justification of the steps he had 
taken for the increase of the regular army and navy and for 
the almost unhmited enlistment of volunteers. Congress had 
assembled on the 4th of July, in a most liberal and patriotic 
state of mind, %vith the exception of a mere squad of timid 
temporizers and another of open sympathizers with Seces- 
sion. Nevertheless there had been much criticism of the 
Administration in both branches of the legislative body, with 
some loud-toned " On to Richmond " oratory, and also a gen- 
eral industry in obtaining the appointment of constituents to 
office which had interfered sadly with the performance of 
strictly legislative functions. Very few men, in eitlier House 
or Senate, had yet discovered the fact that Mr. Lincoln was, 
and for some busy months had been, the Dictator of a Republic 
struggling for its very life. It did not fully dawn upon them 
until tlie day when they suddenly awoke to the conviction that 
they themselves eagerly desired him to be so and were ready 
to put into his hands all the dictatorial powers they knew how 
to give him, and then hasten home. 

The message the President sent to Congress upon its assem- 
bhng was a remarkable document. It began with a condensed 
historical sketch of the rise of the Rebellion and of its progress 
to that date. It carefully summed up and presented the great 
fact, so carefully left unshaken by his own course from the 
beginning, that the Rebels and not the ISTational Government 
had forced upon the country the one distinct issue, " immediate 
dissolution or blood." It showed that they had followed this 



258 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

forcing by practical dissolution, so far as that was in their 
power, and by drawing the first blood themselves. 

This issue, so presented, the message then contended, was 
not all which was at stake in the conflict thus ruthlessly pre- 
cipitated. It said : " And this issue embraces more than the 
fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family 
of man the question whether a constitutional republic or 
democracy, — a government of the people by the same people, 
—can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against its 
own domestic foes. It presents the question whether discon- 
tented individuals, too few in number to control administra- 
tion according to organic law in any case, can always, upon 
the pretenses made in this case, or on any other pretenses, or 
arbitrarily without any pretense, break up their government, 
and thus put an end to free government upon the earth. It 
forces us to ask, ' Is there in aU republics this inherent and 
fatal weakness ? ' ' Must a government, of necessity, be too 
strong for the hberties of its own people or too weak to main- 
tain its own existence ? ' " 

These questions presented the precise view of the case held 
by European statesmen, and they had often and openly de- 
clared their belief that, whenever such a question should be 
asked by the logic of actual events, the answer would be given 
in the afl5rmative and the republic or democracy involved 
would at once go to pieces. As to the American Eepublic, 
the issue was now plainly set before the whole world by the 
man who was more serenely confident than almost any other 
that such answer would be given as should assure all future 
thinkers of the stabihty of all free governments, provided these 
were bravely maintained by the men in charge of them. 

Mr. Lincoln's message dealt briefly but sharply with certain 
absurd ideas of possible " neutrality" which were employed at 
the time in Kentucky as a convenient cloak for cowardice and 
treason. He defended his course in the arbitrary suspension 
of the writ of habeas corpus. He then advised that Congress, 



BULL RUN. 259 

in the hope of making the war a short one, should place at the 
disposal of the government four hundred thousand men and 
four hundred millions of dollars. 

These were large figures, and they almost took away the 
breath of some who heard them ; but the members of the body 
to whom the message wr.3 addressed had been doing the requi- 
site amount of thinking, during the eighty days which had 
passed since the President's proclamation summoned them to- 
gether. They did what they would surely not have done if 
they had been gathered too hastily. They voted half a mil- 
lion of men and five hundred millions of dollars, in a burst of 
eager patriotism. 

Even ]\Ir. Lincoln had almost a hope, at first, that this might 
prove suflBcient. It might well have been so if the half mil- 
lion of men had at that hour been soldiers, and if these had 
been under officers, great and small, such as the course of the 
war, with Mr. Lincoln's watchful help, afterwards selected 
from among the long list of then untried, unknown, altogether 
undiscovered and undeveloped heroes. 

The message concluded with an exhaustive analysis of the 
stupidities and absurdities of the old doctrine of " State rights" 
as now applied to the war purposes of the Rebelhon. Such an 
argument was timely, both for home and foreign reading. It 
was intended for both, as was also much of the earlier matter 
of the message. 

Congress passed the necessary acts to legalize whatever Mr. 
Lincoln had seen fit to do. Its leadership was in the hands of 
strong, hard-headed, resolute men, fresh from hearing the 
voices of their angry constituents, male and female, and not a 
little very martial music of other descriptions. The protests 
of the disloyal membei-s were loud and bitter, but small atten- 
tion was paid them. The minority vote against the measures 
sustaining the government contained the names of several men 
who afterwards accepted commissions in the Eebel army, and 
of one, Vallandigham of Ohio, who was afterwards contemptu- 



260 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ously sent across the lines into the Confederacy, " because he 
belonged there." 

Into such a body as this Congress, busily engaged in so good 
a work and in the discussion of its details, the news of the de- 
feat at Bull Kun fell like a bursting bombshell. It was an ex- 
plosion which put an end to useless debate and blew to atoms 
the last vestige of hesitation as to the necessities of the case. 
AU remaining business was finished in exactly two weeks, fur- 
nishing perhaps the most remarkable instance on record of 
legislation condensed under pressure. Congress adjourned and 
went home, leaving Mr. Lincoln at Washington as sole dic- 
tator, endowed for the first time with f uU forms of law for the 
carrying on of the war. 



TEE BLOCKADE. 261 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE BLOCKADE. 

Recognition— Accepting the Situation— The Neutrality Mask— Rejected 
Information— War Correspondence not History— The Fetters of Eti- 
quette not Worn. 

Mr. Lincoln carefully abstained from coming into open col- 
lision with any State government acting as such. In public 
and in private he recognized the assailants of the national in- 
tegrity only as criminal individuals. He treated the Con- 
federacy simply as the same men acting together in an organ- 
ized body for the same essentially criminal purposes. He in- 
sisted that, as no power existed anywhere for the dissolution 
of the Union without the assent of all concerned or a majority 
of them, it had not been dissolved. A different view was con- 
veniently taken for political purposes on the other side of the 
Atlantic. England and France did not even wait for the com- 
plete formation of the Confederacy before they made haste to 
recognize it as a '' belligerent" and to treat it as in some sort 
one of the nations of the earth. " The South," as they com- 
monly called it, had yet no navy, but its admirers hoped and 
believed that the deficiency would soon be supphed. 

The North, they were yet more sure, was unable to send to 
sea a fleet capable of coping with any one of their cruising 
squadrons. It had neither ships nor money nor credit, and it 
was so far disorganized that it was not likely to obtain either 
at an early day. It was to their minds merely a question of 
time, indeed, into how many fragments, of what shapes, the 
offensive republic should fall. 

The motion towards recognition was met by a prompt and 



262 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

vigorous protest. The attitude and purpose of tlie United 
States, expressed tkrougli the courageous and skillful diplomacy 
of Mr. Seward, induced the most precious hesitation abroad as 
to what precise step in favor of the South had better next be 
taken. 

One of Mr. Lincoln's first and most difficult duties, after 
declaring a blockade of Southern ports, had been to deprive 
foreign nations of all pretext for denying its practical efficiency. 
A mere "paper blockade" would have invited certain ruin, 
and so one was enforced which was quickly found to stand the 
most expensive tests. The work of shutting up the blockaded 
ports was performed by a navy of hastily gathered and some- 
what miscellaneous material, but one that proved amply effi- 
cient. 

Finding that the Union cruisers were vigilant and numer- 
ous, and that the blockade could neither be avoided nor denied, 
the powers most dii-ectly interested were compelled to meet 
the question whether they should forcibly break through or 
surrender all hope of getting regular supplies of Southern cot- 
ton till the end of the war. 

They at first very nearly reached the conclusion to break the 
blockade by force, deliberately calculating that the United 
States, already struggling under terrible difficulties, would at 
once be cowed by the prospect of a war with England and 
France and the open addition of their powers to those of the 
Confederacy. They were not at all acquainted with Mr. Lin- 
coln, and but slightly so with the great people who sustained 
him. Both had been sadly misrepresented to them by inter- 
ested parties. 

Nothing could well be plainer to the mind of the President 
than that the United States had little to lose and everything to 
gain by braving the worst at once. Cowardice was the road to 
sure and swift destruction. The only hope was in utterly un- 
flinching courage. . Our commerce was abeady fast disappear- 
ing from the seas, and there was every reason to believe that 



THE BLOCKADE. 263 

in any event it would shortly vanish altogether. It did so 
vanish, strictly in accordance with this ex]:)ectation. In more 
than twenty years following the issue of Mr. Davis's privateer- 
ing proclamation it has not recovered the ground it that day 
began to lose. So perceiving and so expecting, Mr. Lincoln 
declared in good set terms that if France and England should 
so determine on their owti behalf, their commerce also should 
follow into disaster that which we were inevitably losing. 
They were to estimate for themselves the relative values of 
their general commerce, on the one hand, and the prospective 
cotton-crops and friendship of the Confederacy, on the other. 

For several months the two powers looked the problem in 
the face without coming to any definite conclusion. The form 
in which it was laid before them from time to time can best 
1)0 understood by quotations from the written instructions 
given by Mr. Seward to Mr. Charles Francis Adams on the 
latter's departure to his duties as Minister to England. 

" If, as the President does not at all apprehend, you shall 
find Her Majesty's government tolerating the application of 
the so-called seceding States or wavering about it, you will not 
leave them to suppose for a moment that they can grant that 
application and remain the friends of tlie United States. You 
may even assure them promptly, in that case, that if they de- 
termine to recognize, they may at the same time prepare to 
enter into an alliance with the enemies of this repubhc." 

There was more to the same effect ; and a similar message 
was carried to France. It was by no means kindly received 
by either power, but its expression of unliiucliing determina- 
tion prevented the threatened disaster. 

Through the following three months the two governments 
beyond seas continued to wrestle with the difficulty before 
them. 

There, along the whole Confederate seaboard, was still the 
effective blockade, and behind it lay stores of cotton with end- 
less crops yet to come, and with a young nation ready to raise 



264 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

them and sell them and at the same time forever to divide 
and cripple the growing and dangerous power of the United 
States. Here, all the while before their eyes, was the stern 
alternative presented by Mr. Seward. 

They decided that they would not exactly " recognize" and 
so at once bring on hostilities. The government of Great 
Britain iirst discovered a sort of solution. It sought to dodge, 
beg, and circumvent the entire difficulty by solemnly declaring 
itself "neutral" between two morally equal and belligerent 
parties, into which it assumed the American Eepublic to be 
divided. 

There was something painfully ludicrous about such a posi- 
tion, but for the tremendous consequences immediately threat- 
ened by it and the miseries and wastes which were actually re- 
sultant. The manner in which it was received at Washington 
reads now singularly hke a bit of dry, grim humor, officially 
perpetrated by Mr. Seward at Mr. Lincoln's suggestion. 

On the 15th of June the representatives of England and 
France at Washington asked Mr. Seward for the privilege of 
reading to him officially certain fresh instructions sent to them 
by their respective governments. Mr. Seward politely de- 
chned to listen until he should first " unofficially" have read 
the proffered papers by himself that he might know what they 
were. He was permitted to examine the suspicious instruc- 
tions, therefore, privately. Having done so, and having con- 
sulted Mr. Lincoln, he refused to know or to be " officially" 
informed what there was in them. He was two men for that 
occasion, and Mr. Seward was too wise to let the Secretary of 
State take official notice of documents which formally set forth 
the entire doctrine of " neutrality." Fresh instructions, how- 
ever, were at once forwarded to Mr. Adams and our other rep- 
resentatives abroad. 

As a result of this mingling of prudence and firmness. Rebel 
sympathy in Europe was left with no other way of expressing 
itself but to arm and send out the Alabama and like piratical 



TUE BLOCKADE. 265 

craft, and to build swift steamers in whieh to " run the block- 
ade" of the Southern xUlantic seaports. The general disposi- 
tion to do these things received a tremendous impulse from the 
battle of Bull Kun. 

The true character of this engagement was wildly travestied 
for foreign consumption by an Enghsh " war-correspondent" 
by the name of Russell, who saw none of the hard fighting 
and a good deal of the disorganized mihtia whose mob of fugi- 
tives interfered with his own panic-stricken race from the sup- 
posed approach of danger. It is a curious fact that to this 
day the accounts written by such men on the spur of the 
moment, in great excitement, without any possible means of 
obtaining correct information, are accepted widely as "his- 
tory," while the contrary statements of commanding generals 
and other competent authorities, mi hoth aide^, are unread or 
disbelieved. 

Conferences between Mr, Seward and Mr. Lincoln were 
almost of daily occurrence, and the iron hand discernible in 
the conduct of our foreign affairs was not solely that of the 
shrewd and able head of the State Department. These con- 
ferences were generally held at the White House, to and from 
which Mr. Seward went and came with the easy familiarity of 
a household intimate rather than with any observance of use- 
less etiquette. It was not at all uncommon, however, for Mr. 
Lincoln to walk over to the State Department, in the daytime, 
or to Mr. Seward's house, in the evening, Adth or without an 
attending private secretary to carry papers. On the whole, 
he generally preferred to go alone, as he would have done 
formerly in the transaction of private business at Springfield. 
It was the business itself, and that only, with which he bur- 
dened his mind. It is to be doubted if either he or Mr. Sew- 
ard ever wasted a thought upon their purely personal methods 
of doing their work. 

Then and afterwards a similar freedom marked the inter- 
course of the President with the other members of his Cabinet, 



266 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and yet a close observer would not have failed to perceive sncli 
differences, finely but unconsciously graded and marked, as 
each man's personal character and uses indicated or de- 
manded. 



WOEK WITH HAW MATERIALS. 267 



CHAPTER XXXIY. 

WOEK WITH RAW MATERIALS. 

The New Army — Hunting for Brigadiers — Finances — Preparations of the 
South— Old Guns and New— Presidential Target-Practice — Selection 
of General McClellan. 

When Congress adjourned on the 6th of August, 1S61, 
there was a strong feeling in the minds of its membership, and 
throughout the country among all men, that to " the Govern- 
ment," meaning by that word, very distinctly, Abraham Lin- 
coln, the President, had been given all that it or he could ask 
for, and that the war ought, in all reason, to be made a short 
one. 

A great deal had been given, tnily. Every day that passed 
saw some fresh regiment of enthusiastic volunteers marching, 
with more or less of regularity in their lines, through the 
streets of "Washington, or into one of the several designated 
camps of the West and Center. Five hundred thousand men 
had been voted, and five hundred millions of money. That 
was a great deal. Men enough to overnm the whole Confed- 
eracy, and money enough to pay their ex})enses. Great things 
were expected of the President, but no other man li%ang knew 
60 well as he did the marvelous differences between the good 
" voting" done by the national legislature and the long results 
of it which had been left for him to realize. 

Up to the date of the passage of the Act by which Mr. Lin- 
coln was authorized to accept the services of volunteers, about 
three hundred thousand men had offered themselves and had 
been, for the greater part, promptly accepted. They had also 
been put into training, as efficiently as might be, in such a 



268 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

famine of military teachers, for the purpose of turning them 
into soldiers. Quite a large force was already in actual service, 
but the new law was nevertheless a good thing to have and 
work under, and the business of recruiting new regiments went 
forward with great energy. 

The organization of such an army presented difficult prob- 
lems in abundance ; but these were met and seized and solved 
with a sagacity and patience which appears more wonderful as 
the years go by. The very organic structure of the country, 
politically, created peculiar features of the situation, and these 
were not altogether detrimental. The appointments to offices 
of every grade in the regular army, in all its branches, were in 
the sole control of the President. It was not so with the vol- 
unteers, for these, in a curiously complex way, were still re- 
garded as "State troops," although in the national service. 
Their regiments were named and numbered as of the several 
States wherein they were recruited, and all their regimental 
officers were chosen and commissioned under the laws of the 
same States. Mr. Lincoln could not appoint so much as a 
second-Keutenant in a regiment of volunteer infantry. There 
is one instance recorded of a cavalry regiment from New York 
reduced to one half its original strength and having lost all 
its commissioned officers in one way and another, until it was 
in command of the orderly sergeant of one of its companies. 
It was necessary to apply to the Governor of JS'ew York for a 
commission for that sergeant as a second-heutenant, and he 
passed the succeeding grades to that of major in a few weeks 
from the date of his first promotion. With the grade of " col- 
onel " the State appointmg power terminated and that of the 
Commander-in-Chief began. With it also began the all but in- 
surmountable difficulties in the way of making even reasonably 
good selections of " general officers." Much could be done by 
the employment of graduates of the West Point military school, 
reappearing now from their long retirements in civil occupa- 
tions. The regular army itself furnished much good material. 



WORK WITH RAW MATERIALS. 269 

of which such liberal use was made as to interfere seriously with 
the efficiency of that important arm of the service. The re- 
cords of the Mexican War were searched to find the names 
of men who had shown themselves capable of good service. 
The result may be somewhat illustrated by the career of a 
well-known officer, a graduate of West Point and of the 
Mexican "War, who marched down Broadway as a volunteer 
private in a New York regiment, and in a marvelously short 
time, with small help of his own, save merit, found himself a 
major-general, in command of a division in the West. 

it was a matter of course that the pressure for " general " 
appointments should be tremendous. Politicians of all parties 
were anxious for the glory of stars upon their shoulders, with 
little reference to their personal qualifications for the command 
of men on a field of battle. Such men actually gathered and 
carried or forwarded to Mr. Lincoln written " recommenda- 
tions" for their appointment as brigadiers, in precisely the 
same manner and of the same kind as if they had been apply- 
ing for clerkships in the Treasury. 

Until the chaos could be reduced to something approaching 
order, all these papers were kept by Mr. Lincoln in his own 
office ; but they were afterwards transferred to their proper 
pigeon-holes in the War Department. 

The most serious consideration in the appointment or em- 
ployment of generals arose from the fact that there was yet 
almost no possiljility of knowing who would and who would 
not prove able to perform well the work so given. Much was 
necessarily left to the appointing power of events and to the 
sure selections of actual service ; but the untried capacities of 
all commanding officers gave Mr. Lincoln a most anxious 
reason for hesitation in risking important mihtary operations 
at too early a day. There were other reasons for the delays 
which so severely exercised the pens of the newspaper critics 
of the Administration. 

The details of the processes to be employed in converting 



270 ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 

the Congressional grant of " power to raise money" into some 
specific sliape available for the payment of salaries and the 
purchase of war materials were in the capable hands of Mr. 
Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury. The methods 
proposed by him were such as, on the whole, secured the warm 
approval and hearty co-operation of the President. The lead- 
ing financiers of the great Northern cities were very prompt 
in reaching a comprehensive view of the situation. At an 
early meeting of the ISTew York bankers certain timid sugges- 
tions as to the futm-e value of government bonds were met by 
an energetic capitalist with the caustic warning : " If you let 
the government go down, your other securities won't be worth 
much to speak of. We must let the President have the last 
cent." The Treasury and its payments became, in a short time, 
very much an affair of skillful engraving and rapid printing. 
A similar process was at the same time carried forward, as 
rapidly but not so skillfully, at the South. 

The Confederate Congress had voted its President also a 
nearly unlimited army, and he was fast assembling it. He had 
a very good start of Mr. Lincoln, as to time at least, in all pre- 
paration and equipment. Some advantages had also been pro- 
vided for him by Mr. Floyd, President Buchanan's Secretary 
of War, in transferring quantities of arms from United States 
arsenals at the ITorth to similar places of deposit within what 
were now the Confederate army lines. Purchases of war ma- 
terials at the ]^orth and in Europe had been pushed with in- 
dustry and success until the Southern ports were closed by the 
blockade and armed forces were stationed at all the points 
where highways and railroads crossed the boundaries of seceded 
territory. In every Southern State the work of organizing 
and drilling soldiers had been pushed with feverish energy for 
months before Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated. He knew very 
well how great a disadvantage his raw levies would be under 
in any collision with better disciplined troops. 

The obtaining of men and officers, the turning of these into 



WOEK WITH RAW MATERIALS. 271 

soldiers and leaders, constituted one vast tribnlation : bnt it 
was only a part of the problem that embarrassed Mr, Lincoln. 
The entire country did not contain enough of serviceable mus- 
kets, all patterns counted, to put one in the hands of each man 
already enlisted. There were not sabers or carbines or pistols 
for the cavalry ; nor guns or caissons or ammunition or suita- 
ble harness for the artillery ; neither were there wagons for 
the quartermaster's service and commissariat, or horses yet col- 
lected to haul them or to mount the cavalry. Tents were 
scarce. Clothing was so difficult to obtain that even when the 
following winter came the system for its full supply had not 
yet been perfected. The entire machinery and multiform ap- 
pliances of a brand-new mihtary establishment in camp and 
field had to be developed from raw materials, and to this task 
Mr. Lincoln gave his very life. 

There was in the upper circles of the ordnance service of 
the regular army an all but in\'incible conservatism. It took 
the form, especially, of a strange prejudice against the adoption 
of any new invention in the way of arms and equipments. 
At the same time there was a sweeping epidemic of invention 
among all the ingenious patriots of the nation. Many, indeed, 
who were not at all ingenious, but desired to make a little 
money, caught it also. 

Between these two opposing forces Mr. Lincoln was com- 
pelled to establish some kind of equilibrium. The manufac- 
ture of improved anus went forward with good rapidity and 
with a constant effort towards the attiiinment of unifonnity. 
Government agents in Europe made purchases of such mate- 
rials as they could find. They found a great deal that they did 
not purchase, indeed ; and every batch of murderous antiquities 
rejected by an United States inspecting officer was sure to be 
at once shipped to America on speculative account, to be 
urged upon the "War Department. There was much " pohtical 
influence" brought to bear on behalf of those curious collections 
of condemned weapons. Mr. Lincoln was more than once 



272 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

compelled to laugh, indignantly, over the effrontery of men 
who brought to his own office actual specimens of so-called 
" rifles," to be offered him by the thousand at high prices, the 
specimen itself, in more cases than one, being an unfirable 
tool which would have disgraced a curiosity-shop. 

Other matters, even more curious, were constantly urged 
upon him : wonderful new forms of cannon ; coffee-mill 
guns ; breastplates and cuirasses, of steel or of complex " pad- 
ding," which would have been fine loads for men on a forced 
march in summer ; new pistols, good and bad, and bayonets 
of many patterns, and devilish contrivances which even the in- 
ventor found difficulty in explaining the possible use of. 

Mr. Lincoln patiently examined whatever was brought to 
him. He took an especial interest in improved rifles. He at 
once accepted the idea, which the old army men rejected, that 
the breech-loading rifle was the weapon sure of universal adop- 
tion in the near future ; and whenever one was shown him that 
seemed to promise well, he did his best to give it a personal 
trial. On the wide space of open ground between the "White 
House and the Potomac, in the latter months of 1861, there 
stood a huge pile of old lumber, nobody knew whence or why. 
It was just the thing upon which to set up a target ; and there, 
in the very early morning, the President of the United States 
might have been seen, accompanied by one of liis private secre- 
taries, diligently firing away with the last new invention, and 
f oi-ming his own opinions of its prospective usefulness. He 
came as near as was possible to being arrested there, one 
morning, for using fire-arms within the city limits contrary to 
existing military regulations. He was in the act of stooping 
on one knee for a rery careful aim, when a " corporal of the 
guard" with a squad of men came running down upon him to 
make the seizure called for by their orders. A chorus of an- 
gry shouts dropped suddenly into silence, however, and the 
whole squad turned and ran away faster than they came 
when the stooping culprit stood erect and they had a good 



WOEK WITH BAW MATERIALS. 273 

look into the smiling face of the President, His only remark 
was : 

" Well, they might have staid and seen the shooting." 

This, truly, was not very good, considered as marksmanship, 
for Mr. Lincoln had never acquired accuracy in that accom- 
plishment, even among the Indiana backwoods. 

After the gathering of armies, the appointment of a small 
army of generals, and the creation of a war organism, one 
more question lay heavy on the heart and brain of Mr. Lin- 
coln. It was one he was to carry for a long time, for it re- 
lated to the discovery of a great commander. Immediately 
after the battle of Bull Run it was necessary to relieve Gen- 
eral McDowell — under whose nominal leadership and in spite 
of whose ability and good conduct that well-fought battle had 
been thrown away — of the command of the forces defending 
Washington. He was succeeded, under the advice of Lieu- 
tenant-General Winfield Scott, by Major-General George B. 
McCIellan, an accomplished officer, favorably known as a mili- 
tary scliolar and writer, and also, to the country generally, by 
reason of the successes acliieved by the troops under his com- 
mand in West Virginia, which were then attributed to his 
generalship. That they (»ccurred without his especial compli- 
city and almost with(^ut his knowledge was not accurately as- 
certained until a later day. 

General McC'lclhin, in the beginning, was a great and wel- 
come relief to Mr. Lincoln, and his services were appreciated 
to the uttermost. He was young, ambitious, overflowing with 
])odily vigor and high spirits, and he was thoroughly equipped 
^\^th the technical knowledge and skill required for the present 
emergency. It is entirely safe to say that a better selection 
could not have been made at the time, since the chosen gen- 
eral possessed a peculiar genius for organization. That his 
genius as a military commander went but little beyond the 
range of faculties so to be now employed was not discovered 
until a different set of circumstances called upon him for the 



274 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

exercise of powers of whose very absence he was sincerely ig- 
norant. 

On the resignation and retirement of General Scott, in the 
following ISTovember, General McClellan, as the then senior 
major-general of the army, was advanced to the chief com- 
mand. It was his serious misfortune that with his advance- 
ment he accepted and retained a vague idea that the President, 
a mere civil and elective functionary, had somehow ceased to 
be his mihtary superior and actual commander-in-chief. 

Through all the trials and changes which followed, it is well 
to say here, Mr, Lincoln never materially modified his original 
estimate of General McClellan and much regretted his inability 
to add to it. Just before the final act of removing him from 
command, he at last remarked to a member of his personal 
staff : 

" For organizing an araiy, for preparing an army for the 
field, for fighting a defensive campaign, I will back General 
McClellan against any general of modern times. I don't know 
but of ancient times, either. But I begin to believe that he 
will never get ready to go forward !" 

It was said with somewhat of sadness but with more than 
ordinary emphasis, for it implied that the forward movement 
was of more importance, in the eyes of Mr. Lincoln, than were 
the personal fortunes of any one commander. That was a 
point overlooked by fnany people, both then and afterwards. 

McClellan assumed command on July 27, 1861. The work 
of equipping the army and navy went steadily forward. The 
Southern statesmen and generals toiled at their similar task 
on the other side of the now rigidly tightening army lines. 
Mr. Lincoln saw more and more clearly the magnitude of the 
struggle before him, while hourly the people began to clamor 
more loudly for the battles and victories which were not ready 
and did not come. 



x\EW 2,' Alios AL LIFE. 275 



CIIAPTEE XXXV. 

NEW NATIONAL LIFE. 

A Shattered Idol— A New State— Contraband of War— Transitions and 
Processes — Lincoln a Dictator — The Law of Revolution. 

It is not altogetlier ea.*?}' at tliis day to nnderstand how 
deeply ingrained in the minds of the American people was 
once the idea of the legtility of human slavery. Only a small 
percentage of even the men who cast their votes for Abraham 
Lincoln, in 18G0, were thorough-going enemies of slavery for 
its own sake, or were at all entitled or willing to be classed as 
"Abolitionists." If, however, those who hated the institution 
were few at the beginning, every day of the continuance of the 
war added tu their numbers. Every drop of good blood wasted 
by the slaveholders' rebellion intensified the horror with which 
human bondiige fast grew to be regarded. Nevertheless, the 
great majority of the people yet re<]uired a prolonged and 
severe course of instruction and of mental and moral awaken- 
ing to prepare them for the final breaking of the old-time idol. 

Mr. Lincohi knew very well that slavery must i)erish. lie 
had so declared in public and in private. lie was fully 
convinced, from the first, that the downfall of the RebeUion 
must carry with it the destruction of tlie one cause tmd object 
of the Rebellion, but his own hands were for the moment tied. 
lie was fettered by the oi)inions and prejudices of the very 
people upon whom he was calling and dei)endiug for men and 
money. He was fettered by the prevailing sentiment of the 
army itself and by that of many of its best commanders. lie 
was fettered by the unforfeited legal rights of slaveholders in 



276 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, 
Missouri, and that part of Virginia known as West Virginia, 
which had loyally repudiated the " ordinance of secession" on 
the 23d of May. 

In this latter area, indeed, an important political action had 
followed. The Union men in about forty counties, between 
the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio Kiver, strengthened by 
the presence of Northern troops and by their first successes in 
arms, held a convention of delegates at Wlieeling, as early as 
June 11, 1861. They provided speedily for a new State gov- 
ernment, and the Legislature gathered under the direction of 
the convention met at Wheeling, on the first day of July, to 
declare its adhesion to the Union and to elect two Senators of 
the United States. These latter were sworn in as members of 
the Senate on the 13th of July, but it was not until two years 
later that the new State of West Virginia was admitted into 
the Union as a separate commonwealth. 

Mr. Lincoln was dealing with a subject of which he had 
made a Kfe-long study. He was hourly studying it now, and 
clearly perceived the delicate and dangerous nature of the situ- 
ation. The deeply rooted prejudices of millions were not to 
be trifled with. Time must be given for changes to take 
place, and these would be made at great cost of blood and 
treasure and untold suffering ; but the price so to be paid for 
them was unavoidable. 

Nevertheless, at the very threshold of the war, Mr. Lincoln 
was compelled to meet and deal with the African- American 
slave, in actual, personal presence. Eager, hopeful, jubilant, 
the colored men and women, by day and by night, came 
marching into every camp on the long border. They brought 
their children with them when they could, and their continual 
arrival seemed to shout in the ears of the troubled ruler, whom 
they already regarded as a divinely appointed deliverer : 

" Here we are ! What are you going to do with us ?" 

The whole country heard it, more or less distinctly, and 



NEW NATIONAL LIFE. 277 

floods of conflicting connsels as to the matter and manner of 
tlie answer poured in upon the President. 

There were men among his newly appointed generals who 
were ready and willing to answer it for him as to the areas 
under their direction, oblivious of the need of uniformity in 
the pohcy to be pursued and of some other important con- 
siderations. 

Decidedly the best solution of the diflBculty was offered by 
General B. F. Butler, himself a former pro-slavery Democrat. 
Accepting in its fullness the idea that slaves were not human 
beings but mere personal property, they were also " property 
used for mihtary purposes," of many kinds, and so, when cap- 
tured or found, were " contraband of war," as much as a loaded 
musket or a quartermaster's wagon. They could not be sent 
back to strengthen the military hands of the enemy, and few 
" Contrabands" were returned to their owners after the slightly 
grotesque idea became well lodged in the minds of the army 
and its officers. The practice in this respect varied much for 
a while, but a fair degree of uniformity came at last in the 
sure course of human events. All Mr. Lincoln could do was 
to prevent pernicious haste, and tliis he managed to accom- 
plish. His precise action in the most important case arising, 
that of Fremont in Missouri, was compHcated with other con- 
siderations, and must be treated in another place. ' There is, 
however, something not a little absurd in the idea entertained 
and advocated by many : that for a number of months, at and 
about this time, Mr. Lincoln ceased to be the earnest foe of 
slavery he so long had been, and that he was afterwards happily 
reconverted in time to write and issue the proclamation of 
emancipation, in 1SG3. He underwent no such falling away, 
and he required no such subsequent change of heart and pur- 
pose. Li order to perceive the entire consistency of his course 
it is but necessary to form an approximately correct idea of the 
condition of our national affairs and of his relations to them in 
the remaining months of the year 1861 and during 1862. 



278 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The country was semi-cliaotic in all its conditions, foreign 
relations and domestic affairs alike, political, moral, financial, 
and industrial. A revolution had arrived and was progressing 
which affected every citizen in all his relations in life, and the 
very excitement men were under prevented all but a very few 
from perceiving, studjdng, or comprehending the changes they 
were passing through. There is a sense in which Mr. Lincoln 
was an embodiment and expression of these changes. He also 
was developing, learning, advancing, and it is enough for his 
greatness that he was at all points and continually so much 
more advanced than other men, and so much better informed, 
that he was able to lead them wisely and not into ruin. 

The national government at Washington, such as it was 
prior to the outbreak of the KebeUion, had been the object of 
varied degrees of patriotic devotion, but the average American 
voter had but a faint and fragmentary understanding of his 
duties relating to it or of its rights and powers relating to 
him. 

These latter might be exceeded with impunity by Mr. Lin- 
coln, so far as the masses of the people were concerned, so long 
as his action accorded at all with their conception of what it 
was best for him to do. It is therefore not very far from the 
truth to say that the President assumed and freely used, from 
time to time, all powers required by any emergency as being 
conferred upon him by the emergency. If these powers were 
also conferred upon him by the Constitution and the laws, as 
previously interpreted, so much the better for those instru- 
ments and for their previous interpretation. If not, it would 
answer equally well if Congress afterwards should pass laws 
covering the matters involved, and if the Constitution should 
be duly amended at the defective spot so discovered. Such is 
the fundamental law of all human societies in all revolutionary 
states and conditions. For Mr . Lincoln to have failed to 
utilize this would have been idiotically weak and would have 
involved sure destruction of the interests in his keeping. 



iV^TT' NATIONAL LIFE. 279 

From the first, nevertheless, all efforts were made to avoid 
unnecessary interferences Tnth vested rights or the well-being 
of individuals. Mr. Lincoln's own personal characteristics 
came to the front in this connection. A large part of his daily 
annoyances came to him on account of his kindly inabihty to 
turn a deaf ear to a story of suffering or injustice. Any power 
he at any time assumed or exercised was taken not to himseK 
at all. It was but a means applied to a manifest use, and, so 
far as he could determine, the best and most righteous means 
for the best and most righteous use. He toiled patiently and 
unselfishly. In such a multiplicity of duties his mind knew no 
rest, turning hourly from one branch of his responsibilities to 
another. He grappled resolutely ^vith every problem put to 
him by his needs for action, foreign or domestic. It seems 
clear to those who knew him best that he himself perceived, 
as did many of his nearer observers, the s^vift and steady 
growth of his own capacities as a ruler of men. His inner life 
expanded under the intense heat of his trials. The strength of 
his will, the iron resolution which lay behind his easy-man- 
nered kindliness, had been manifested day by day from his 
very cliildhood ; but the world contains a multitude of strong- 
willed, resolute, able, successful men not one of whom con- 
tains the rare material whereof a Revolution may construct for 
its needs a competent Ruler. 

The times were testing him in many ways. Weaker men, 
often more brilliant in many expressions of capacity, began to 
come frequently into what resembled collisions with him. It 
was all but amusing, now and then, to witness their surprise at 
their own helplessness in such trials of their strength as had 
not called upon him for conscious exertion, just as in the early 
days he had quietly held out at arm's length the burly wrestler 
from Clary's Grove. 

He was now about to enter upon the most prolonged and 
perplexing of these collisions, and the only one which at any 
time seemed to present elements of pubHc peril. His course 



280 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

in the management of all minor difficulties may be rationally 
gathered or imagined after obtaining a fair understanding of 
the first struggle between "military authority" and "civil 
supremacy." 



PRESIDENT AND GENERAL. 281 



CHAPTEE XXXYI. 

PRESIDENT AND GENERAL. 

The Army of the Potomac — Newspaper Acrobats — The President's Mail — 
"Work of the Private Secretaries — Army Organization — An Advance 
which was Not Made — Offensive and Defensive War. 

The routine of Mr. Lincoln's office-work, during this first 
Bummer and autumn, as afterwards, was varied by occasional 
visits to the camps and forts, where he was always welcomed 
with enthusiasm. The personal attachment for him among the 
rank and file of the army grew faster and became stronger than 
his critics and enemies were at all willing to believe. 

His evenings at home were also varied now not unfrequently 
by visits at the house of the general in command of the Army 
of the Potomace, when McClellan happened to be in the city. 
The President's course and personal relations with him for a 
time were, as nearly as might be, those of a confiding and 
familiar friend. The entire mass of the -^Titten correspond- 
ence between them bears witness to such a state of things. In 
the eyes of Mr. Lincoln's nearest advisers he seemed even too 
indifferent to all rules of military etiquette, and also to a very 
ai)parent assumption and arrogance in act and mamier on the 
part of his brilliant sul)ordinate. These were as yet of minor 
consequence, and the main thing, after all, was that the work in 
hand should be done. 

There were great things going on in those days in the "West 
and elsewhere; and of these we shall take due note farther 
on. But at the present juncture we have to do with matters 
which then chiefly engaged Mr. Lincoln's attention, and that 



282 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. - 

of tlie country at large tlirougliout the Atlantic States. To 
the minds of people at Washington the Army of the Potomac 
was the Army of the United States. It was very important, 
certainly ; and its splendid commander with his glittemig stafE 
dashing through the streets like a small earthquake-in-new- 
Tinif orm were a wonder which must, men thought, dazzle the 
eyes of all the millions who were not there to see. The coun- 
try at large was but moderately dazzled, and the President not 
at all. He knew that the area of the war extended beyond 
the picket-lines of that one army, for he was watching the 
swift fluctuations of success and disaster to the farthest 
frontier. He was also studjnng the rapid changes of thought 
and purpose among the people, and knew what a continual 
battle there was in the souls of men and women all over the 
l^orth. He grew more and more absorbed in his work and 
more difficult of approach upon any but needful business. 

ISTevertheless it was during these months that he almost en- 
tirely gave up any attempt at reading the newspapers. He at 
one time instructed one of his j^rivate secretaries to make a 
daily digest of the attitude of the leading journals as editori- 
ally expressed. 

It was actually so done for about a week. The President 
glanced at the digest once or twice, during that time, but he 
discovered how little he really cared for it all, and told the young 
man to return to more useful work. There were too many 
sudden " revolutions," perhaps, in the attitudes assumed by the 
journalists, while there was really but one with which he or 
the people had anything to do. 

The mail of the Executive Mansion, always large, had now 
grown to a volume which was, probably, not afterwards in- 
creased. Its very size shut out aU probability of its examina- 
tion by Mr. Lincoln himself. Counting packages of docu- 
ments as one " letter," the number of letters of aU kinds varied 
from two hundred to two hundred and fifty each day. The 
range of subjects treated by the writers was about as wide as 



PRESIDENT AND GENERAL. 283 

the human imagination. It is possible that three per cent of 
these communications, including subsequent references, were 
at some time seen by the President. About half were sure to 
relate to business belonging to bureaus of the several executive 
departments and were at once forwarded to the proper places. 
The other half might contain a few which required fihng in 
the President's own office for reference. The secretary's waste- 
basket received the mass remaining, of advice, abuse, fault-find- 
ing, insanity, egotism, and threats of personal ^^olence. A 
careful estimate shows that of all the letters sent by mail to 
]Mr. Lincoln, at this time, he saw and read, at the time of their 
arrival, about one in a hundred : less rather than more. The 
fact illustrates forcibly the absorption of his mind and the 
pressure upon his time and energies, for it had been his life- 
long ha])it to examine with care ever}' paper that came to him 
from any source, however humble. Even when some epistle 
of uncommon importance prompted the secretary in charge 
to urge its contents upon him, the response was sure to be, 
" "Well, what is it ?'' and a digest in brief was expected unless 
the letter itself were of the briefest. 

With the more persistently intrusive official and legislative 
multitude it was not possible to deal in a similar way. It 
was out of the question to put the most selfish of men into 
a waste-basket, n(»r was it easy to transfer such a jierson to his 
proper bureau. Nevertheless, tlie secretaries in charge of the 
matter did succeed in performing, for the throngs of callers, a 
process analogous in some of its results to that employed upon 
the mails. 

;Mr. Lincoln's time and strength were saved for him to the 
extent of their very good ability, and they protected him from 
untold annoyances. It was a good while before the President's 
jiaticnce gave way and he came, at last, to their assistance. 
Embodied pertinacities would succeed in getting in their " cards" 
and securing interviews to which they were not entitled. 

Yery much this state of things continued, to the end. Time 



284 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

did but perfect the simple and unostentatious machinery with 
which the President performed his duties. He did but put 
himself continually into more complete connection with and 
relations to the vast and complicated organism of national ad- 
ministration which was fast assuming shape and efficiency. 

In every corner of the country, all imaginable interests were 
adjusting their relations to the government, or discovering that 
they had any, mainly through the varied means by which they 
were induced to take upon them some share of the pubhc 
burdens or were able to derive jjrofit from the public expen- 
ditures. 

Of all the formative processes, in all their ramifications, no 
other man knew or could know so much as did Mr. Lincoln. 
^No better example can be given, perhaps, than the creation of 
the first Army of the Potomac. The credit of this has been 
generally accorded to McClellan, and the President is himself 
a witness that his first commander did zealously and well the 
part that by nature and assignment belonged to him. There is 
a sense in which it was the part of a truly great Orderly Ser- 
geant, and ignorance only can underestimate or despise a work 
so vitally important. 

The men who were to form that army had been gathered by 
Mr. Lincoln, as has been seen, and they were now in the 
service of the United States under due form of law. The 
selections of regimental officers had been made under State 
authorities. 

The appointment of brigade, division, and corps commanders 
was in the hands of the President. So of all appointments in 
the Ordnance, Commissary, and Quartermaster services; and 
the connection of these with the "War Office continued to be 
more or less direct, even after they were ordered to duty. 
Their efficiency depended largely upon that of their specific 
official superiors, and these were practically on the staff of the 
President. The latter had, therefore, not only an intimate 
knowledge of the conditions of the army, but an especial respon- 



PRESIDENT AND GENERAL. 285 

sibility concerning its operations. It was tliis which gave him 
the right to complain when after all had been done except 
the duty of the field-commander, performance failed to follow 
preparations and so vast and costly a machine remained com- 
paratively unemployed. 

This, as hinted above, grew to be Mr. Lincoln's chief care 
during that momentous winter of 1861-2. As is well known, 
an " advance" of the Army of the Potomac had been planned, 
and, by an order issued by the President on the 2Tth of January, 
it was to take place on the 22d of February. Every effort had 
been made that there should by that time be at least a show pre- 
sented to the nation of something to come of all the sacrifices it 
was making. The President knew but too well the i:)rof oundly 
disturbed and irritated state of public feeling. He knew how 
much of justice was in the eager popular demand for '' action," 
and had been uttering it continually in every f onn of speech and 
writing. He had studied and planned and provided, toiling by 
day and night that nothing required should be lacking. He 
was intensely, absorbingly interested, and had been positively 
assured that the ordered advance would be duly made. He 
was not in any manner undeceived until a day or two before 
the date assigned. He was alone in his room when an oflicer 
of General McClellan's staff was announced by the door-keeper 
and was admitted. The President turned in his chair to hear, 
and was informed, in respectful set terms, that the advance 
movement could not be made. 
" AVhy V he curtly demanded. 
" The pontoon trains are not ready — " 
" Why in hell and damnation airi't they ready ?" 
The officer could think of no satisfactory reply, but turned 
very hastily and left the room. Mr. Lincoln also turned to the 
table and resumed the work before him, but wrote at about 
doul)le his ordinary speed. 

Little apology is called for by the precise manner of his ex- 
pression ; entirely at vai'iance from his habit of speech, it was 



286 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

extorted from him by the awful pressure of months concen- 
trated in the intense irritation of an instant. 

While all the records of that period and particularly his own 
correspondence, official and private, are full of strong commen- 
taries upon the fidelity with which he labored for the perfec- 
tion of the Army of the Potomac, he w^as equally hard at 
work for and with every other army. He by no means neg- 
lected the Navy, and he shared with Mr. Seward the pressure 
of foreign affairs. No commander, of course, could give due 
weight to all this, or more than a thought or so to the questions 
of finance and national politics, without a due care of which by 
the President the armed forces could not be kept in the field. 

There were times when General McClellan seemed even less 
able than other military men to grasp an idea which conflicted 
with the fulfilment of his own demands, and his capacity for 
waiting a little longer was marvelous. 

As early as October 27, 1861, he officially reported, to the 
Secretary of War, that he had under his command, ready for 
duty, 147,695 men, of all arms, with additional forces, not yet 
ready for duty but in course of preparation and soon to become 
so, that swelled his muster-roll to 168,318. More men were 
constantly arriving, and the question in the minds of the 
people and their President was identical : " Why is not some- 
thing decisive done with such an army ?" 

No sufficient answer was given, then or afterwards ; or ever 
can be. 

For an advance, leaving the capital well protected. General 
McClellan officially reported that, at that date, he had at his 
disposal 76,285 men and 228 pieces of artillery. 

The President felt that his relations to the forces in the 
field were not altogether conferred upon him by the article in 
the Constitution which declared him the Commander-in-Chief. 
Peculiarly was it true of the Army of the Potomac that he had 
created it. Governors of States, generals, heads of bureaus, 
all subordinate agencies, had done their duty. The people had 



PRESIDENT AND GENERAL. 287 

responded nobly to every call. Still it was true that no sucli 
army, or any army at all, would then have been upon the Po- 
tomac if the President had awaited the action of States and 
governors and legislators. The organization of both army and 
navy had, in his mind, preceded the fall of Sumter, and the 
Army of the Potomac found its nucleus in the regular and 
volunteer recruits he began to gather in the last weeks of 
April, 1861. But for this nucleus the subsequent " army" 
would have formed, if at all, elsewhere than on the line of the 
Potomac. 

The reports of General McClellan show that 50,000 men 
were prepared for field-duty during each consecutive thirty 
days, from July 27 to October 27. The South had been at 
work longer and had accomphshed less, because its equally effi- 
cient subordinates had a less competent head to direct and sus- 
tain them. That this was true was made less important from 
the technically defensive nature of the war to be earned on by 
them and the character of the areas to be defended. For 
Southern purposes, except as to the numbers arrayed for any 
one encounter, every hundred men they could raise and equip 
at home was an offset to three hundred of the far distant 
Northern recruits ; for, the value of individual soldiers being 
equal, the longer the march of a Union army to a battle-field, 
the more was its likelihood of being outnumbered when it 
arrived. 

The Confederates, therefore, had men enough. The " Cop- 
perheads" of the North were useful allies to them at all times. 
Europe aided them in many ways. Even the stormy zeal of 
impatient patriots in the free States sometimes fought for them. 
They found help of some kind at every turn. They found an 
unintentional but extraordinary co-operation in the prolonged 
idleness of the Army of the Potomac. It is not too much to 
say that, in the early fall of 1861, Mr. Lincoln seemed to have 
a splendid army at his disposal, Init was compelled to waste the 
months until spring in obtaining the adoption of digested 



288 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

plans for its employment. The result was that, at the last, the 
army was in no better condition for actual service ; the plans 
finally acted upon were fragmentary and incomplete ; time and 
money and much precious human life had been thrown away ; 
and the campaign which followed did but crown the mournful 
record with the fruits of hesitation, in disaster and discourage- 
ment. 



DICTATOR A AD CO^'GRESS. 



CHAPTER XXXVn. 

DICTATOR AND CONGRESS. 

The Legislative Branch— The Committee on the Conduct of the War- 
Useful Interference— Councils and Umpires— Political Complications 
Beginning— Civilian and Soldier. 

The position of President Lincoln in the year 1S62 cannot 
be studied advantageously without a glance at liis relations to 
the National Legislature which assembled at Washington in 
the winter. 

Congress came together wath the majority of its membership 
in a red heat of patriotism. There was a minority, indeed, and 
the material for an " opposition," but only a very few ultraists 
cared to be known as anti-war men. Omitting the extreme 
Copperheads, every member was under a sort of triple pres- 
sure :— of his own ideas as to the prosecution of the war ; of a 
knowledge of the feverish eagerness of his constituents for the 
suppression of the Rebelhon ; and of the even greater eager- 
ness of a persistent fraction of that same constituency to obtain 
civil or mihtary offices under the general government. 

There were, indeed, a great many offices to be given, and 
these were all nominally at the di^osal of Mr. Lincoln. He 
had a vast amount of trouble in avoiding the onerous respon- 
gibility of giving that wide business his personal attention. 
He succeeded fairly well, but could not escape altogether. He 
drily remarked of it all that there were twenty applicants for 
each office, and every time he filled one he made twenty ene- 
mies. The nineteen were enemies because they were dis- 
appointed, and the man appointed hated him because he 



290 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

thouglit he ought to have a better place or because he was in- 
debted for it to some other man. 

As a body, Congress was profoundly ignorant of the Dicta- 
torship, although a few voices made bold to denounce it. The 
idea prevailed that the government had traveled thus far by 
virtue of the work done during the hasty summer session of 
1861. The President had obeyed and followed very well, but 
must now be again taken in hand a httle. ^It was not long be- 
fore the " Legislative Branch" of the government began to in- 
terfere with the " Executive Branch" in military matters. It 
was a little more patriotic than constitutional, but Mr. Lincoln 
had no manner of objection. j^When, in December, 1861, Con- 
gress appointed a strong and capable " Committee on the Con- 
duct of the War," its members were at once taken into hearty 
and intimate consultation. What would surely have been a 
peril or a hindrance to a weak or a selfish ruler was trans- 
formed at once into an additional and powerful guaranty of 
Congressional co-operation. It was not so much, thencefor- 
ward, that Congress had assumed a part of the Executive pro- 
vince, but that the Executive had deftly provided himself 
with personal and official representatives upon the floor of 
Senate and House. 

This Committee, constantly advised with, cordially invited 
to investigate, to consider, to come and to go, and to know 
everything before it happened, became a priceless safety-valve 
for the growing discontent over inexplicable delays. Without 
it, there can now be httle question that Mr. Lincoln would 
have been more seriously misunderstood and even antagonized 
by the body of men nominally represented by the committee. 

The President of the United States is Constitutionally the 
Commander-in-Chief, and Abraham Lincoln was also actually 
Dictator ; but he was entirely at ease as to all his rights and 
dignities when a joint committee of Senators and Representa- 
tives freely summoned before them his military officers, by the 
dozen, and called for their views of things in general and their 



DICTATOR AND COXGRESS. 291 

professional opinions of battles and campaigns. He knew be- 
forehand that the sure result would be the strong and unani- 
mous s}Tnpathj of that "jury" of clear-headed men, with him 
personally, and their approval of the general outlines of his 
policy, however much they might disagree among themselves 
or with him as to details of specific operations. In the long 
run it turned out as he expected. 

Congress had appointed seven of its best men to find fault 
with the President, and grumble at him, and agree with him, 
and help him ; and to help the nation stand by him more finnly 
than ever. Changed in its membership somewhat, as time 
went on, the Committee continued its services to the end of the 
war. Never at any time were they of greater utility than in 
their close and searching study of the condition of the army 
and the causes of its inaction during the long trial of that 
memorable winter. At the same time, their personal pressure, 
and that of Congress exerted upon Mr. Lincoln through them, 
was an additional burden of no insignificant weight. 

It is now very easy to perceive that if the President had at 
once assumed the full exercise of his nominal powers as Com- 
mander-in-Chief, forcing a reluctant general and his minor 
generals to a course of action for which they avowed them- 
selves unprepared, the results could hardly have been other 
than disastrous. The President fully understood this feature 
of his responsibilities, and it was forcibly dwelt upon by his 
civil and military advisers. It was also true that the latter held 
erroneous ideas of the Rebel forces opposed to them, and mag- 
nified less than fifty thousand effective men into a hundred and 
fifteen thousand in their official estimates ; but Mr. Lincoln had 
no trustworthy means of refuting the error. He believed it 
to be one, but was compelled to submit to its effects as pa- 
tiently as the circumstances permitted. He did so, but even 
his tough patience wore slowly away, as has been related, and 
at last became altogether exhausted. 

It has been said and printed that he " disclaimed aU military 



292 • ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ability," and it is true that he often spoke very modestly of 
his pretensions ; but the necessity was upon him, and he contin- 
ually and distinctly and from the beginning exercised the im- 
portant functions of a military umpire. His decision was final 
in the selection of plans and in their modifications as campaigns 
progressed. This was equally true when he yielded his own 
opinion to that of another. It was unavoidable, in the ab- 
sence of any one military authority of well-attested value. He 
never shirked the implied responsibility ; but the records, so 
far as these are preserved, clearly sustain the conclusion that 
the announced and adopted decisions and plans attributed 
solely or mainly to him were in fact the verdicts of a sort of 
perpetual " council of war" of which he was the conspicuous 
chairman. This council was of varying membership and size, 
but he made it include not only his maps and books but the 
best educated and informed mihtary capacity in the country. 
•To this he added the Committee on the Conduct of the "War 
and judicious selections from his Cabinet. He would gladly 
have been relieved of a responsibihty so heavy. The hour 
and the man for liis rehef came at last, but neither had arrived 
in 1862. 

!N^ow that the veils of the army lines are removed from the 
then hidden condition of the Confederate armies between 
Richmond and Washington, and all personal and pohtical con- 
siderations can be omitted from an analysis of the situation, 
the attitude and action of Mr. Lincoln, prior to the Peninsular 
campaign of 1862, is more than justified. 

Beginning in full time, he had summoned an army and had 
strained all the resources of the country to prepare it for the 
field. At the earhest day of its apparent readiness he had 
urged the prompt and vigorous use of that army in a forward 
movement. His estimate of the opjDOsing forces and their 
power to resist such an attack is now proved to have been cor- 
rect. As to specific plans of movements, military critics are 
yet divided concerning the relative wisdom of such as were 



DICTATOR A^D CONGRESS. 293 

presented by General McClellan, representing his own conncil 
of war, on the one side, and by Mr. Lincoln on the other as 
the fruit of the joint skill and wisdom of the " conncil " over 
which he presided. There is, however, no longer any respect- 
able authority bold enough to commend the inaction against 
which the President so earnestly strove and protested. 

The campaign on the Potomac was but a part of the load 
upon his shoulders, and he was sufficiently wise and self-con- 
trolled not to exercise the fullness of his authority, even when 
compelled to say, as he did to General McDowell, in December, 
1801, " If something is not done soon, the bottom will be out 
of the whole affair." He was well aware that a yet more cer- 
tain ruin to the national cause would follow the failure of any 
great military movement directly ordered by himself, and that 
no campaign can be more sure of failure than one undertaken 
contrary to the will of its controlling general and his most 
trusted lieutenants. 

Perhaps the most striking fact of all is that the apparent 
repugnance to forward movements never ceased. It was mani- 
fested, under various forms, to the very end of the Peninsular 
campaign, and even later. It is in vain now, but it is hardly pos- 
sible not to ask the question : " AVhat would have been the 
net results of the campaigns upon the Potomac in 1801 and 
1802 if President Lincoln had been sustained by a general as 
eager for action as himself and as correctly estimating the 
strength of his own army and the enemy V 

The natural reply is : " Why, then, did not Mr. Lincoln re- 
move McClellan at once and appoint some other commander ?" 
It was urged upon him more than once or twice, and he 
answered it by the homely anecdote of the man who declared 
it "a bad time to swap horses when you are crossing a 
freshet." 

Tnie, doubtless ; but there was more than a question of mere 
military expediency in the way, and the President labored 
under difficulties which are worthy of record. 



294 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

In some inscratable manner, General McClellan had become, 
and was too well aware of it, the chief and representative of 
that part of the American people which had not given its heart 
to Mr. Lincoln, however full it might be of genuine patriot- 
ism. McClellan was also curiously adopted by that other part 
of the population which had no patriotism whatever and which 
hated alike the President and the cause he represented. 

There had not yet been time, nor heat, nor suffering, to 
hammer and weld the nation into a compact mass with refer- 
ence to the issues of the war, and the base upon which the 
government stood was appreciably narrow and infirm. The 
powers in the hands of Mr. Lincoln, even as Dictator, were 
mainly executive and directory, rather than creative. He was 
compelled to meet and deal with all the forces of the hour, 
whether assistant or opposing, just as they were and not as he 
might have wished them. There was an indefinite mark at 
which his power might break in his hands if unwisely over- 
strained. He well understood the unreasoning enthusiasm 
with which the greater part of the army regarded their young 
and, as they deemed him, their " dashing" commander. They 
had seen him dash, frequently and at full gallop, through camp 
after camp, accompanied by a brilliant staff which contained 
sprigs of European royalty. They had, indeed, manipulated 
the Comte de Paris and the Due de Chartres into " Captain 
Parry " and " Captain Chatters," but these were still a kind of 
wandering king, and the great general, the young American 
l^apoleon, had his tent full of that kind of men and was teach- 
ing them the art of war. He was also teaching it, they half 
believed, to the rest of the army and to Congress and to Mr. 
Lincoln, and some day he would give the Confederates a com- 
plete course of instruction. 

The intensity of the army jealousy of " civilian interference" 
offers an utterly ludicrous aspect of the situation, considering 
who and what were the civilians in question and who and 
what were the " miHtary." Still, it was a power and not to 



DICTATOR AND CONGRESS. 295 

be disregarded, and had much to do with the President's lono- 
endurance of General !McClellan's procrastination. The exist- 
ence of such an obstacle seems to have been unknown to the 
country at large at the time, but it was sadly set forth after- 
wards, in detail, in the testimony given on the trial of Fitz 
John Porter, after the second battle of Bull Run. 

The Peninsular campaign was an accomphshed failure before 
the removal of McClellan, but that was no hindrance to the 
persistent declaration, by his partisans, that the failure had 
been ordained and engineered by " civahans'' at Washington, 
in order that disaster might furnish a pretext for the removal. 

Mr. Lincoln's position was one of extreme dehcacy, but at 
last the Confederate authorities came to his deliverance. The 
final adoption of a plan of campaign for the Union armies was 
provided for at Eichmond. Early in March, 1SG2, the rebel 
generals concluded that their forces at and about Manassas Gap 
had bearded and checked an army three times their strength as 
long as it was safe to do so. They retreated, without striking 
a blow, or so much as gi^^ng warning, or even saying what 
they meant to do next. 

So bitter and taunting a comment upon the wisdom of Mr. 
Lincoln's prcN-ious urgency enabled him to compel army actiim 
of some kind. At a meeting of tlie corps commanders of the 
Army of the Potomac, on the 13th of March, the retreat of the 
enemy was formally recognized ; a plan of an advance upon 
Richmond was adopted, approved by General McClellan, and 
forwarded to the President. It is worthy of note that his 
official approval and reply, through the Secretary of War, was 
instantaneous. It bears the same date of March 13, 1862. 
AVhatever default of energy or promptness might be charge- 
able to others, not an hour of precious time was wasted by the 
Commander-in-Chief. 

The joint dates of the Army plan and of its approval by 
Mr. Lincoln once more bring out the fact of his continuous 
and perfect state of preparation. lie did not wait and study, 



296 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

because he did not need to do so. He liad carefully digested 
the whole subject, and no form of its presentation could take 
him by surprise. As he himseK was apt to remark when 
seemingly new things were laid before him, he had " studied 
that matter," and his action upon it was a foregone conclusion. 
It was said that a plan had been adopted, but, after all, it 
was little more than a determination that the army should sail 
down the Potomac, land on the Virginia side and hunt for 
something to do. It was agreed upon with Mr. Lincoln that 
the hunt should be pushed vigorously in the direction of Rich- 
mond, and he went down in person to urge and press and aid 
in every possible way the magnificent " meet " of well-armed 
hunters. 



TEE PEMNSULAB CAMPAIGN. 297 



CHAPTER XXXYIIL 

THE PEXEN'SULAR CAMPAIGN. 

Monitor and Merrimac — The Story of a Great Invention — Waiting before 
Yorktown — Civil Supremacy in Danger — A Retreat in Good Order — 
A Perilous Dilemma — The Army of Virginia — Gen. Pope's Campaign 
— A New Political Party — One Army Swallowed by Another. 

The movement of the Anny of the Potomac had been pre- 
ceded by a gi-eat naval event. On the 8th of March, 1802, the 
Confederate armored ram Virrjinia or MerHmac steamed out 
into Hampton Roads and destroyed several United States ships- 
of-war. She demonstrated in a few miimtes tliat any wooden 
or other war ship kno\vn to exist was helpless against her. So 
far as any eyes could see, the Potomac was open to her, Wash- 
ington city wa.s at her mercy, and the face of military affairs 
was changed. A kind of Egyptian darkness came down at 
once, and, for a few hours, men walked around as if they were 
feeling their way in it. 

On the following day occurred the wcirld-famous fight be- 
tween the Merrnnae and the Monitor., the latter being 
de.>ieribcd by the Confederates, as looking like a Yankee 
cheese-box on a raft. The timely arrival of this revolving 
gun-tower was as little a matter of human foresight as if she 
had fallen from the sky, and the nation recovered promptly 
from its fit of shivering dread. The power of the destroyer 
was at least neutralized and things could go on somewhat as 
before. Not upon the sea, indeed ; for the naval construction 
of all the world was revolutionized in a day and all the armed 
vessels afloat, except the two which fought in Hampton Roads, 
became antiquated. 



298 ABRAUAM LINCOLN. 

Mr. Lincoln had not foreseen the Merrimac, but he had 
foreseen the Moiiitor and her construction, and therefore her 
presence and service were as much due to him as was her plan- 
ning to her inventor. When Mr. C. S. Bushnell, to whom the 
Monitor had been intrusted, and to whom lasting honor is due 
for his management of the matter, arrived in Washington with 
the plans and specifications of the proposed vessel, he carried 
them straightway to the President. Mr. Lincoln comprehend- 
ed them at once and became deeply interested. He remarked, 
pleasantly, that he knew but little about ships, but he did un- 
derstand a flatboat, and this invention was flat enough. He 
promised to meet Mr. Bushnell at the !Navy Department at 
eleven o'clock the next day and do all he could in securing the 
adojjtion of the plan and the construction of a " nionitor" for 
trial. That was precisely what she was built for, no one 
prophesying what the trial would be. At the hour named he 
left the White House and walked over to the Navy Depart- 
ment to fulfill his promise. A number of naval officers and 
other experts were assembled to sit in judgment, and the 
President listened patiently and silently to their successive ex- 
pressions of opinion. These were almost unanimously given 
adversely to the practicability of the plan of vessel proposed. 
Finally, Pear- Admiral Smith, chairman of the Naval Board in 
charge of the matter, turned to the President and asked him 
what he thought of it. 

" Well," said Mr. Lincoln, " I feel about it a good deal as 
the fat girl did when she put her foot into her stocking. She 
thought there was something in it." 

There was a laugh, but everybody present understood that 
Mr. Lincoln was in earnest. Admiral Smith, who had been one 
of the few who had understood and favored the invention, was 
glad enough to be sustained by the President, and took it up 
with energy. Mr. Bushnell and his associates obtained their 
contract for a trial-monitor and built it, and after its work in 
Hampton Roads Mr. Lincoln had a right to express strongly, 



THE PENINSULAR CAMP^UGN. 299 

as he did, his satisfaction over the fact that he " had given the 
Monitor a Uft " at the time when, without it, she would have 
remained an inventor's dream. 

The " co-operation of the Navy " was now more than ever a 
factor in the plans of the Army, and it was given with hearty 
efficiency. The troops were shipped and landed without any 
greater number of blunders than mark the records of similar 
feats of transportation in other wars. The enemy were in a 
bad condition to withstand the forward push the President 
continually urged. He was so anxious for action that, early in 
May, with Secretaries Stanton and Chase and General Yiele of 
the Engineers, he went down to Hampton Eoads on the U. S. 
steamer Miami, to see for himself how matters were. This 
happened (May 11) just as N'orfolk was abandoned and the 
Merrimcic blown up by the retiring Rebels. It is now well 
known, too, that McClellan could have marched to the very 
gates of Richmond with but moderate hindrance if he had 
not discovered a sort of reproduction of the " Manassas lines," 
with another imaginary host behind them. These were pro- 
\'ided liim by the petty defenses at Yorktown, and before these 
he promptly sat down. Mr. Lincoln wrote and urged in vain. 
It is not needful to deal with all the details of what may be 
considered a purely " tactical " controversy. The result was a 
simple and natural sort of repetition of the previous lesson. 
The army lay before Yorktown for a month, and the Confed- 
erate purpose in holding the place had been accomplished. 
"When it was done, the few obstructing regiments and guns at 
Yorktown were quietly removed, and the Rebellion had again 
secured the results of a great victory without lighting a Ixattle. 

The remainder of the Peninsular campaign belongs to the 
military history of the war and not to the Life of Lincoln. 
At and ])efore its outset and until it was completed and aban- 
doned, the President was confronted, for the first and last 
time, with the peril, common to all human revolutions, that 



300 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the personal power and position of a favorite military officer 
might enable him to predominate over, or at least be practically 
independent of, the civil authority. 

That General McClellan was, perhaps unintentionally, per- 
haps almost unconsciously, the exponent of that peril, was but 
imperfectly discerned by the President, for a time. It was 
more clearly perceived by others, following the course of events 
on the spot, and narrowly watching the demeanor of General 
McClellan in personal interviews with the President or with 
his own subordinates. It was yet more clear to those who 
listened to much of the ill-advised talk among some of the 
latter. It can even more plainly be discerned, at this day, by 
any student who will take the trouble to examine the official 
reports and correspondence. ]N"o man can now pretend to de- 
clare what might have been the consequences to the country if 
Mr. Lincoln had been less firm or less wisely forbearing and 
patient. A weak or hasty man in the President's chair would 
surely have fallen from it, if not in name, at least to all intents 
and purposes, and his power would have passed into the hands 
of the Army Commander. 

As for the latter, all he really required was time to oiier the 
able leaders opposed to him the opportunities of which they 
continually availed themselves. 

They and not Mr. Lincoln demonstrated to the country the 
true rank of McClellan in the hst of celebrated generals. It 
is not at all necessary to question his zeal, or patriotism, or un- 
common capacity. To briefly paraphrase Mr. Lincoln's own 
words concerning him : " For the organization of an army, or 
for handhng that army in a defensive campaign, second to no 
other general. For a vigorous advance movement, never 
ready." And add : " When forced to make such a movement, 
incapable of so making it as to succeed." 

The last battle on the Virginia peninsula was fought, and 
well fought, on the first of July, 1862, at Malvern Hill. It 
was the repulse of a desperate attempt of the Confederates to 



THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 301 

crush a retreating enemy. It brought out with great clearness 
the fact that the Army of the Potomac, with experience of 
such battle-names as Seven Pines, Fair Oaks, Mechanicsville, 
and Cold Harbor, had become an army of veterans, and that 
its commander held it well in hand. There was no sign of 
disorganization or of any lack of discipline or of confidence or 
patriotism among the men. Their retreat was secured and 
their assailants were too badly shattered to repeat the attack. 
Still, the campaign was a mournful failure, and any attempt to 
renew it, under General McClellan, would have shaken the 
hold of the government upon the nation. Neither could he, 
then and there, have been safely replaced by any other gen- 
eral. The most distinguished of his lieutenants did not hesi- 
tate to say that they could not and would not step into his 
place if he should be removed. It was, therefore, inevitable 
that the army should abandon the effort to reach Pichmond by 
that road, and it was accordingly withdrawn, by Mr. Lincoln's 
orders, during the month of August, 1862. 

After the M^ithdrawal an increasing importance began to 
attach to the declarations made by General McClellan as to 
what he could and would have done had he been permitted to 
remain and had he been properly supported. That such asser- 
tions were made, and tliat they were echoed in many modifica- 
tions, throughout the country by the growing and organizing 
opposition to Mr. Lincoln, was altogether a matter of course. 
The fact of the withdrawal afforded a spurious life to proposi- 
tions incapable of disproof. A direct issue was created and 
assumed by what had actually become two jarring factions in 
all the land. 

If, therefore, it were possible to admit all that was then or 
is now claimed by General McClellan and his friends, and to 
advance, on behalf of the Administration, no other fact than 
this direct issue, that is quite enough. 

The President was compelled to relieve General McClellan 
of his command at as early a day as was consistent wdth the 



302 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

proper care of the army. To have retained him would have 
been a public assumption by the President of the responsibility 
of his failure, and would have rendered all but impossible any 
further resistance to his demands. So would Mr. Lincoln 
have put a fatal weapon into the hands of his enemies, at the 
same time that he severed himseK at a blow from the patriotic 
masses who sustained him and whose view of the whole matter 
closely coincided with his own. 

A task of unusual delicacy was now before him. He was 
confronting questions of national pohtics and statesmanship as 
well as of war and the selection of military leaders. There 
were men, even among the friends of the Administration, 
who so grossly misconceived the feelings of the army as to 
assert that the soldiers would refuse to fight under any other 
commander than McClellan. Mr. Lincoln troubled himself 
very little about the rank and file. He knew them too well 
to have any doubt as to their choice between a favorite officer 
and their country. At the same time, he was indifferent to 
any casual and hasty remarks " the boys" might make about 
himself. They did not make many which would have been 
disagreeable for him to hear. The result showed that they 
understood the campaign they had been fighting better than 
the pohticians gave them credit for, and they were beginning 
to understand Mr. Lincoln very well. 

The main difficulty now in the mind of the latter was not 
at all the removal of McClellan, but the choice of his successor. 
There were reasons for preferring one of the well-known chiefs 
of the Army of the Potomac, but a brief search among them 
failed to discover the right man. Quite a number of them had 
exhibited high qualities and achieved reputation, but no one 
towered sufficiently above his brethren to be regarded by them 
as their selection for the first place. Each general felt and said 
that he could not take the reins of his falling leader without 
concentrating upon himself such jealousy and resentment as 
would impair his usefulness. What was worse, each seemed to 



TEE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 303 

feel the same thing even more strongly on behaK of any other 
general whom Mr. Lincoln might choose to name. 

The conclusion was plain. It was necessary that the new 
commander should be a man as far as possible removed from 
the operation of corps jealousies and what might almost be re- 
garded as family contentions and neighborhood rivalries. 

MiHtary operations in the West had thus far been upon a 
smaller scale as to separate battles and campaigns, however vast 
in aggregate importance. A number of competent men were 
rapidly manifesting their abihties and making names for them- 
selves. Xevertheless there had not been time or opportunity 
for any man to establish his pre-eminence as a general com- 
manding large bodies of troops in the field. The course of 
events had not made a selection; and Mr. Lincoln did not 
actually make one, but he did the next best thing. He deter- 
mined to keep on trying till he should find what he wanted. 

What was called " The Army of Virginia" had been organ- 
ized from the several commands operating in the western part 
of that State, and the troops reserved for the protection of the 
city of Washington. The organization was nominally effected, 
on pai)er, by a general order issued July 20, LSG2, and Major- 
General Jolm Pope, an officer of admitted merit, had been 
placed in command. 

The Army of Virginia, therefore, was ready to receive and 
absorb the several detachments of theArmy of the Potomac, as 
they arrived, on their return from the Peninsula. The two 
armies became somewhat as one, in that mamier, under General 
Pope, without any formal change of commanders; but he had 
no time to get them at all well in hand, before he was called 
upon to meet the forces of the Rebellion upon their old battle- 
grounds in front of the defences of the national capital. 
The evacuation of the Peninsula had set them free from their 
task of defending Richmond. They turned to the northward 
and broke upon General Pope's army in a series of desperate 
encounters, whose disastrous results offered a fitting appendix 



304 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

to the sad story which had previously concluded at Malvern 
HiU. 

During nearly the whole course of this fighting, which in- 
cluded the second battle of Bull Eun, General McClellan was 
at or near Washington. He was not exactly in disgrace or 
" removed," but he was in the position of a man temporarily 
out of work, for he was a general without an army. Mr. Lin- 
coln had carefully avoided open collision with him, and had 
treated him in a friendly manner, personally, but the general 
himself and the whole country well understood the situation. 

The all but instantaneous political result justified the fore- 
cast of Mr. Lincoln's sagacity, for the Democratic party of the 
North, destitute of great names and leaders, at once took up 
the cause of McClellan as their own. They had no other, and 
it offered them a rallying-cry. When, therefore, at the close 
of General Pope's summer campaign, General McClellan reas- 
sumed command of the forces in the field, he did so as a " po- 
litical idol " as well as a military leader. It was two years yet 
to the next Presidential election, but he was already the Demo- 
cratic candidate. It was altogether a new Democratic party, 
and not the old, which was then in process of organization. It 
was sweeping into its embraces all disapjDointment, all discon- 
tent and sourness, and every element hostile to Mr. Lincoln 
personally and to the manifestly increasing antislavery ten- 
dencies of the Republican party and the Administration. 

If the results of the hard fighting done by the army under 
Pope had been less unfavorable, a different course might have 
been possible, but the close of the month of August left the 
President with no choice whatever. Loud voices were heard in 
all the camps and columns of the army. IS'ot those of any con- 
siderable majority, doubtless, but likely to be joined by others 
if things should continue to go wrong. It was necessary to 
heed them and to act at once, for the victorious rebels, in spite 
of the severe losses they had suffered, were about to pour across 
the upper Potomac and carry the war into the Northern States. 



THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 305 

Mr. Lincoln, as has been seen, had no doubt at all of General 
McClellan's capacity for the kind of work now to be required 
of him. It was not exactly a forward movement. There was 
no need to issue any formal order reinstating an officer who 
had never been pubhcly or formally removed and who still re- 
tained his full rank in the army. Indeed, so little had been 
done to interfere with the personal cordialities existing between 
all the parties concerned, in spite of the tremendous war of 
words between their respective admirers and defenders, that 
Mr. Lincoln himself, accompanied by General Halleck, actually 
called at McClellan's house, in AVashington, on the morning of 
the 2d of September, 18G2, instead of sending for him to come 
to the "War Office or the Executive Mansion. 

The whole affair, as it is related by General McClellan, 
sounds wonderfully hke Abraham Lincoln's lifelong way of 
doing things. He had nothing to say about the past and was 
in no wise disturbed by any part of his own prevnous action. 
He had, however, a good deal to say about the present state of 
affairs in tlie army. He said it briefly, and then, relates the 
general : " He instructed me to take steps at once to stop and 
collect the stragglers ; to place the works in a proper state of 
defense, and to go out and meet and take command of the 
army, when it approached the vicinity of tlie works, then to 
place the troops in the best position, — committing everything to 
my hands." 

General Pope was not " removed," any more than General 
McClellan had been. He was still in command of the Army 
of Virginia, but was thus subordinated to General McClellan. 
Within two weeks, the Army of the Potomac had quietly 
swallowed the very organization by which its own separate 
corps and divisions and brigades had previously been absorbed, 
as fast as they arrived from the Peninsula. This result was 
strictly logical, for the greater must contain the less, but a 
good half of the troops now under McClellan were men who 
had not been with him before Richmond and were by no 



306 ABRAHAM LINCOLI^. 

means his admirers. They were " his men" only because of 
orders from headquarters, and the spell of his power had been 
broken. 

As to the restoration of the old name to the consolidated 
mass, Mr. Lincoln had no objection. " The boys" would fight 
as well, or better, and that was the main thing, for they had 
sharp work cut out for them. 

Only a small part of the army under Pope had been " disor- 
ganized," in any correct use of that term. The great mass of 
them was in good condition. The men had fought well and 
were proud of it, and had not lost confidence in their imme- 
diate commanders. They had fought so well, indeed, that the 
forces under General Lee were seriously diminished in num- 
bers and efficiency. Not all the glory of their barren victories 
could make up to them the loss of so many of their best sol- 
diers, both officers and men. 

Had the condition of the troops been at all as some have 
misrepresented it, active operations at once, with those very 
men, under McClellan, would have been absurdly impossible. 
As it really was, he had no manner of difficulty in getting 
them well in hand as he marched. He performed no miracle, 
and their fighting condition was forcibly exemplified, in a very 
few days, at the battles of South Mountain and the Antietam. 



MILITARY POLITICS. 307 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

MILITARY POLITICS. 

Reconstruction— Jarring Counsels — Gen. John C. Fremont— A Premature 
Proclamation — A Modification — Another Subordinate laying down the 
Law to the President — A New Secretary of War — A Human Library. 

The shattered aggregate of rusty political machinery which 
fell into Mr. Lincoln's hands, at the close of the Buchanan Ad- 
ministration, was not a " government." 

The tumultuous mass of factions and local organisms under 
his nominal chief magistracy was not a " nation." 

What he would make of the one and what would become of 
the other were open questions in the minds of all men, of all 
parties, in this and other countries, and they were very freely 
debated in public and in private. 

The post to which Abraham Lincoln was really elected, and 
the position he proceeded to occupy and fill, was that of an ex- 
pression of the deeply rooted and tenacious popular will that 
there should be a government, and a strong one, and that this 
government should organize and pei-petuate a nation. 

His whole life had prepared him for the task. The causes 
which prepared the task for him had been subjects of his study 
from boyhood. He met all difliculties, as they arose, in a man- 
ner which testified what famihar acquaintances they were and 
liow much he had been thinking that they might visit him 
some day. 

As has been seen, the new government took form rapidly, 
and the solid ground of the new nation began to arise with a 
very permanent look, through and above the turbulent political 
flood. 



308 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



It was not as yet easy to designate or limit the powers of the 
government in " war time," but the ideas of other men as to 
the extent and nature of these powers were more vague than 
were those of the ruler himseK. He saw that he had, as Presi- 
dent, and acting as Dictator in many relations, the power to do 
anything which the people could be made to see it was need- 
ful or best that he should do. He had no more, because that 
and no other is always the Kmit of the power of a revolution- 
ary autocrat. The people had many ways of expressing their 
approval, and their faithful servant had little need to regard 
the vagaries of individuals, so long as he was devotedly doing 
his duty. 

It was essential to the performance of Mr. Lincoln's task 
that no element of substantial power should be permitted to 
slip away from him or from either branch of the central gov- 
ernment which he represented. Congress and the Judiciary 
and the Executive were bound together as a unit. It was nat- 
ural, however, and was a difficulty which came early and never 
departed, that the President should find himseK in continual 
colHsion with the political views, the aspirations and ambitions, 
of the able men around him. That these all had views, aspi- 
rations, and ambitions, is to be mentioned in their praise and 
not in blame. 

The difficulty arising from this source was aggravated 
by the fact that every general in the army, whether he would 
or no, was also in some degree a political general and possible 
leader. It was of course that many of even the best should 
be aware of this and should cultivate " doctrinal views" of 
their own, and by these should at times be influenced, more 
or less, in their uses of the powers they derived from the cen- 
tral authority at Washington. Almost the first mihtary officers 
to whom high commands were assigned at once began to ad- 
minister those commands in accordance with their political 
leanings and lookings forward. It was safe to prophesy that 
the country would select its party idols and rulers, for a gen- 



MILITARY POLITICS. 309 

eration or so after tlie war, from among those who should 
come out of it in the character of " heroes." Had the South 
succeeded, the Confederacy would necessarily have become a 
sort of military despotism, sustained and governed by an 
epauletted and army-titled aristocracy. Only the firmness and 
wisdom of Mr. Lincoln prevented the Federal government 
from drifting, at an early day, under the control of the rank- 
ing ofiicers of its first military organization. That, too, %vith 
these very officers at wide variance among themselves as to 
vital questions of policy and statesmanship. 

Two instances suffice to illustrate the situation and vindi- 
cate the course pursued by Mr. Lincoln : and it is not at all 
necessary to claim for him perfection of wisdom or of conduct 
in either case. It is necessary to say, however, that Mr. Lin- 
coln did not act from personal motives m either, and that least 
of all did he act from jealousy or unkindly feeling. 

On the same day in which General McClellan assumed com- 
mand of the troops in front of Washington, General John C. 
Fremont arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, to take command of 
the Department of the "West. There was as yet very little for 
him to take command of, and two thirds of the populations of 
Southern lUinois, Missouri, and Kentucky, including many 
thousands who afterwards became devoted supporters of the 
national government, were wavering in almost helpless inde- 
cision as to which way they should go, to the Confederacy or 
to the Union. In the city of St, Louis itself leading business 
men were contributing timidly to the military funds of both 
Kebel and Union undcrtakiiicjs, and besrsrinir the agents of 
either side not to make public their names or their payments. 
In the rural districts of Missouri the loyal people were gen- 
erally overawed by their more violent as well as better pre- 
pared and organized antagonists. In Southern Illinois the 
majority of the people were from Southern States, densely ig- 
norant and strongly pro-slavery in sentiment. Their geo- 
graphical position and little more, as yet, retained them under 



310 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the sway of an " Abolition government." Kentucky was still 
occupying an attitude of " neutrality" whicli was repudiated 
by Mr. Lincoln, but whicb answered a most important pur- 
pose in keeping the State out of the first mad rush of the Re- 
bellion. Its people were having time given them to think the 
matter over and, in due season, to welcome Federal armies as 
deKverers and defenders. 

General Fremont was a brave and intelligent officer, doubt- 
less, although he never at any time established a reputation as 
a " general." It is fair to say that he never had a good oppor- 
tunity. He had quahties of mind which prevented him from 
being a successful " statesman." He was a man of reckless 
daring, undisguised ambition, strong imagination, and was 
already prominent as a political leader. He had been the 
"standard-bearer" selected by the People's party for their 
hopeless, but earnest and first aggressive campaign of 1856, 
and a good deal of the popular enthusiasm aroused for him 
then, as a candidate for the Presidency, still clung to his name 
in 1861. The romance of his early achievements as an ex- 
plorer of the Rocky Mountains, and of his dashing military 
exploits in California, had been made widely known during 
his presidential campaign. There were many, indeed, who re- 
garded him as in some inscrutable way the " founder" of the 
party vdiich had nominated him, and which was so speedily 
reorganized as the Repubhcan party after its first brilliant 
struggle. 

General Fremont was a Radical, with an opportunity in his 
hands for making himself the representative man and leader of 
all the Radicals of the North. He took the opportunity very 
sincerely but very humanly. His immediate ambition, be- 
yond doubt, was patriotic and military; but it naturally, inevi- 
tably, had a political horizon beyond and all around it. There 
is no need of flinching a fact so entirely devoid of anything 
blameworthy. He had, at the outset, several difficulties with 
the War Office at Washington, and in some of these the record 



MILITARY POLITICS. 311 

favors him decidedly. He took hold of his work with charac- 
teristic promptness and vigor, and, under many disadvantages, 
began to collect and arm troops. He also began to fortify his 
base of action, St. Louis, so that it might be safely left in sub- 
sequent operations. So far all was well ; but before he had 
forces enough to make sure of any part of his infant depart- 
ment, on the 31st of August, 1861, he issued a proclamation, 
altogether on his own account. He declared martial law 
within specified limits, and threatened instant death to all 
rebels found within those lines with arms in their hands. He 
declared all real and personal property of all persons taking up 
arms against the goveniment confiscated to the pubHc use, and 
their slaves, if they had any, were declared free. ' 

It was a curious document, in which a subordinate army 
oflBcer, in charge of a department under Mr. Lincoln, assumed 
to exercise the joint and several jDOwers of the President, Con- 
gress, and the Judiciary. It was doubtless intended as a mili- 
tary measure, to awe the rebel elements around Inm and im- 
prove the morals of his own little army ; but it was, in fact, 
something more. It was a political firebrand hurled among 
the combustible populations above described, and the effect 
threatened to be disastrous, both there and elsewhere. The 
effect upon General Fremont's personal popularity with the 
most loyal elements of the populations of the free States was, 
for the moment, all he could have asked for. He had appealed, 
in one breath, to patriotism, hatred of slavery, and to the vague, 
popular lust for more vigorous measures. A great many ex- 
cellent people were temporarily misled into loud approval of 
his usurpation of authority over life and property, and failed 
to see the mad impohcy of Iiis really empty threats. The gen- 
eral thus presented the President with a problem of more than 
common difficulty ; but, at the same time, he performed an 
important service. He at least warned the waverers in the 
doubtful districts that there might be a wrath to come, and 
many of them needed such a warning. Even in overstepping 



312 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

liis own powers he gave the government an opportunity for 
the better defining its own. He directed the perceptions of 
all men, in good season, towards the sure result of the Rebel- 
lion — that " abolition of slavery" which so few were yet pre- 
j)ared to face and consider. 

Mr. Lincoln was disposed to give Fremont an opportunity 
for correcting, as of his own motion, the more manifest ex- 
cesses of his proclamation ; but the general received his remon- 
strances, for such they were, with a plain refusal to recede. 
Even the President's intimation that Congress then had in hand 
the subject of the confiscation of rebel property does not seem 
to have opened the somewhat self-willed commander's eyes to 
the fact that the legislative and judicial branches of the gen- 
eral government had sole power for the making of laws con- 
cerning the ownership of real and personal property. As to 
the emancipation of slaves, especially, he requested that, if his 
proclamation in that regard were to be modified, the President 
should do it for him, showing that he, the general, had not re- 
treated from a hasty and ill-considered advanced position, but 
had been overruled from Washington. He claimed that it was 
as much his province to initiate such a policy, in the depart- 
ment for which he was responsible, as to adopt and order any 
other strategic or tactical movement, as of troops. If the 
President disagreed with him, he prayed that the President 
should take the responsibility of publicly saying so. What- 
ever was Fremont's motive, — and no man could question his 
political sincerity, — the effect of this would be to leave to him, 
untouched and perhaps augmented, the entire benefit of the 
popularity he had evidently won. Mr. Lincoln was quite will- 
ing to resign to the general all that part of the " spoils of war," 
and in a dispatch dated October 6, 1861, he said : " It is there- 
fore ordered that said clause of said proclamation be so modi- 
fied, held, and construed as to conform to and not to transcend 
the provisions on the same subject contained in the Act of 
Congress entitled ' An Act, to confiscate property used for in- 



MILITARY POLITICS. 313 

suirectionary purposes,' approved August 6, 1861, and that 
such Act be published at length, \vith tliis order." 

General Fremont yielded externally, but set the seal of his 
disapprobation upon the order by manumitting, on the follow- 
ing day, two slaves, the property of a St. Louis rebel. His 
subsequent management of the affairs of his department dis- 
played both his abilities and peculiarities ; and before the mid- 
dle of October— in spite of what he had accompHshed in rais- 
ing and equipping troops, in clearing Missouri of guerilla 
bands, in securing Cairo, an important entrepot for supplies 
at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, in beginning 
the afterwards famous fleet of gimboats, and other eihcient 
preparations for good work, — Mr. Lincoln felt compelled to 
replace him by the appointment of an ofl5cer less bi-illiimtly 
erratic and with fewer probabilities of political aspiration. 
The entire nation l)etter understood its relations to both the 
President and the general before the arrival of another Presi- 
dential election. At that time, however, it was not so well 
comprehended that the President's action was taken on 
grounds of public policy and sound statesmanship. It was 
contrasted strongly by many with the retention in power of 
General McClellan, equally well known to be in training as a 
candidate for political power, but proposing to reach it by fol- 
lowing a very different political highway. It is at all events 
to General Fremont's credit that his instincts were in favor of 
loyalty and freedom, and his deeds in the direction of military 
activity and efficiency. 

At the time of General McClellan's appointment to the com- 
mand of the Army of the Potomac he was still a young man. 
He had his name yet to win as a commander in the field. He 
had attained neither experience nor distinction as a pohtician, 
much less as a statesman. He had no position whatever, ex- 
cept as one of Mr. Lincoln's military subordinates. Neverthe- 
less, so strong were the temptations of the hour and so mani- 
fest were the openings leading to possible political eminence, 



314 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

that we speedily find him undertakuig to advise and even to 
direct the policy of the government. It is almost beyond be- 
lief at this day, but in less than one year from his appointment, 
nnder date of July 7, 1862, we find General McClellan writing 
to President Lincoln from Harrison's Landing, and that too 
with his Peninsular campaign just behind him, as follows : 

" Military power should not be allowed to interfere ^vith the 
relations of servitude, either by supporting or impairing the 
authority of the master, except for repressing disorder, as in 
other cases." 

This meant, being interpreted : 

" Whatever else may be the object of this war, it must not 
disturb Slavery, and any slave accidentally relieved of his fet- 
ters must have them replaced as soon as the accident can be 
provided for." 

The tone and matter of that letter, or of any one of several 
others, supply a window through which can plainly be dis- 
cerned the writer's estimate of his own position, prerogative, 
and power, as well as his clear understanding that a large con- 
stituency in the army and among the people already regarded 
him as their political representative. 

How nearly correct his estimate was may partly be gathered 
from the election returns of the year 1864. A study of these, 
and of events between their date and the date of this letter to 
Mr. Lincoln, will lead to the conclusion that in July, 1862, he 
was more strongly fortified as a political leader than he ever 
was afterwards. He was strong then in every respect but in 
his lack of the legal authority to retain his military command 
for one day after Mr. Lincoln should decide that he had held 
it long enough. If an election could then have been held, its 
results would have been vastly more in doubt. That was but 
nine months after the removal of Fremont, and nothing had 
occurred in the interim, East or "West, to encourage the people 
as to the probable end and outcome of the war. The more ex- 
posed of the districts endangered by the over-hasty zeal of 



MILITARY POLITICS. 3I5 

Fremont were still being fought over, backwards and forwards, 
with varying successes, by contending armies. The " successes" 
had not exhibited quite so much variation on the Potomac, and 
this, too, was laid at Mr. Lincoln's door. 

It was plainly needful that General McClellan should be in- 
duced to give up pla^'ing President for a little while. It was 
impossible to give him troops for the renewal of his advance 
upon Richmond, even if it had been wise to do so. His urgent 
demand for them was denied and overruled, buf the fact that 
the President had no troops which could safely be sent him 
was one which he and his partisans could and did ignore. 
Nevertheless, his political, fortunes culminated when the Army 
of the Potomac was transferred, even in part and for a few 
days, from under his immediate command. 

It was but for a few days, apparently. General Pope's sum- 
mer campaign of hot marches and hard battles, by no means all 
of which are to be classed as defeats, must be regarded as little 
more than a campaign to keep the enemy occupied and checked 
during the removal of the Army of the Potomac from Harri- 
son's Landing to Acquia Creek and the lines opposite TVash- 
ington. The fighting covered a retreat. 

At this time the country at large believed itself to be strain- 
ing its every nerve to carry on the war. It was mistaken, but 
the time had not come for the safe application of greater pres- 
sure. The assistance of Congress would l)c required for that. 
The President's powers were temporarily restricted to the 
utilization of such war material as he had on hand or within 
easy reach. It did not suffice for the creation of new annies 
to be expended by General McClellan on the wrong road to 
Pichmond. 

Other changes had taken place. The Department of War 
had been revolutionized during the first months of 1862. 
When Mr. Lincoln appointed Simon Cameron his first Secre- 
tary of War, he unintentionally assigned that very capable gen- 
tleman to a post at which he was as sure to fall as was the color- 



316 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

bearer of a " forlorn hope." TJpon him rushed the first and 
most impudent swarm of contractors, speculators, adventurers, 
plunderers of every name and kind. Upon him surely fell the 
hasty anger of the people for the inevitable crudities of the 
first year of the existence of the army. He was compelled to 
resign, for the good of the service ; but Mr. Lincoln answered 
his detractors by appointing him minister to Russia, the best 
national friend we then had among the larger powers of 
Europe. Mr. Cameron doubtless had his defects as a Secre- 
tary of War in such a time, but his career enabled Mr. Lincoln 
to make up his mind as to the kind of man the place required. 
He knew just such a man. His name was Edwin M. Stanton, 
a resident of the District of Columbia, an old-time Democrat 
in politics, a lawyer of distinction, but without popularity any- 
where or personal following of any kind. He was absolutely 
sure never to have either. His sturdy loyalty had been proved 
as by fire during a brief service as a member of Buchanan's 
last Cabinet. He had helped to keep the governmental wreck 
from being entirely swept away before Mr. Lincoln's arrival. 

Mr. Lincoln had met Mr. Stanton before that day, and knew 
him to be the possessor of certain personal qualities which were 
as rare as they were likely now to become valuable. In the 
summer of the year 1859 Mr. Lincoln went to Cincinnati, 
Ohio, as one of the associate counsel in the great " McCormick 
reaper case." The leading counsel on his side was Mr. Stanton, 
and that gentleman had imbibed a bitter prejudice, political or 
otherwise, against his ungainly colleague from Illinois. Such 
was, in consequence, his habitual and pointed rudeness that 
Mr. Lincoln's self-respect compelled him to retire from the 
case. When he got home he remarked that he " had never 
been so brutally treated as by that man Stanton." 

He was with him long enough, however, to discover in him 
a peculiar executive ability, tirelessness, disregard of obstacles, 
and a ravenous capacity for the mastery of details, rare indeed 
among men, while the bluntness, directness, even the harshness 



MILITARY POLITICS. 317 

amounting to brutality, were gifts eminently desirable in the 
Secretary of "War of the United States during the years which 
were now to follow. It was a certainty that men would have 
no ground whereon to accuse Mr. Stanton of favoritism or of 
paltering with treason, and liis official chief would never be in 
effect betrayed by weak-kneed subserviency. The latter con- 
sideration was almost beyond price in those days. 

The new Secretary would be just the man to stand between 
the Treasury and the contractors, at the same time that he 
would reHeve the President of some of the most trpng respon- 
sibilities of army management. 

There was much criticism of this appointment among the 
friends of Mr. Lincoln, and they gave him loads of advice. 
He was urged to appoint a man from Xew England, or one 
who might be considered in some beneficial manner pohtically 
or geographically representative. He had done a great deal of 
that sort of thing in the first organization of his Cabinet, and 
the net results had not impressed him with its importance as a 
source of anything he was now in need of. He did not believe 
that any one segment of the national territory contained a man 
sufficiently representative of its population to be able to add an 
ounce of strength to the Administration by his appointment 
to office. He was well aware, on the other hand, that much 
strength might easily be lost by the appointment of a man ob- 
noxious to extremists of any description. 

]VIr. Stanton had not as yet made himself offensive to any 
faction or fraction. To wise friends who expressed a fear of 
mischief to come from what they called his " impulsiveness," 
Mr. Lincohi replied : " Well, we may have to treat him as they 
are sometimes obUged to treat a Methodist minister I know of 
out West. He gets wrought up to so high a pitch of excite- 
ment in his prayers and exhortations that they are obliged to 
put bricks in his pockets to keep him down. We may be 
obliged to treat Stanton the same way, but I guess we will let 
him jump awhile first." 



318 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The restraining power liinted at in the anecdote was always 
at Mr. Stanton's elbow. His superfluous energy consumed 
itself in such ceaseless toil that, when the war was ended and 
the duties to which Mr. Lincoln assigned him were all done, 
the great War Secretary had expended his life for his country 
and very soon lay down for his long rest. That he would 
make countless enemies was well understood in the hour of his 
appointment, and that he continually did so was no surprise at 
all to Mr. Lincoln. That he should make many mistakes, 
especially in minor matters rapidly decided and acted upon, 
was as certain as sunset, but he never once made the cardinal 
blunders, in such a time, of cowardice, indecision, or inaction. 
He was, as nearly as might be, the very man Mr. Lincoln re- 
quired for the hard place he was called to fill. He supplied 
quahties and training which had not been given to the Presi- 
dent. Between the two men, so different, so strangely thrown 
together, there grew to be a bond of mutual reliance which 
had in it a remarkable thread of personal, human tenderness. 

The constant study of military questions forced upon Mr. 
Lincoln's mind a perception of certain other defects in his own 
preparation for the post of Commander-in-Chief. Lack of 
technical knowledges and of the specific trainings of the mili- 
tary schools hampered him at every turn, and it was too late for 
him to take a " West Point course" of education. He could 
not even give the time required for the fuU examination of 
authorities or for miscellaneous consultations with all the gen- 
erals from all the multiplying commands. It was needful, 
therefore, that he should have at his elbow some man whose 
carefully tilled and well-stored brain should be in itself a 
library of military sciences and knowledges, with all its vol- 
umes ready to open at the page. Precisely such a man had been 
made ready for him in the person of Major-General Henry 
W. Halleck. This officer had already distinguished himself by 
his management of affairs intrusted to him in the West, but 
Mr. Lincoln perceived that his best services were not to be 



MILITARY POLITICS. 3I9 

rendered in the field. He was essentially a military scholar, 
haWng devoted his life to studies, researches, and writings, of 
such a nature and quahtj as to mark him unmistakably as the 
man of men to supply Mr. Lincoln's technical and other de- 
ficiencies. On the 11th of July, 1S62, General Halleck was 
appointed General-in-Chief of all the armies of the United 
States, and reached "Washington in the latter part of the month 
to assume control. It was not an unimportant consideration 
that thenceforth generals of armies in the field would receiye 
their orders from a professional soldier, r ankin g them, and not 
from a " civilian" of any grade whatever. 

It is easy to overlook or belittle the practical statesmanship 
displayed in the creation of such an oflice as that to which 
General Ilalleck was appointed. The " statute laws" of the 
land made no mention of it, and the appointment carried with 
it no permanent promotion or increase of pay. The " General- 
in-Chief " had a thankless task before him : almost as much 
so as had the Secretary of War. Victories won would surely 
give all their glory to the generals in immediate command of 
the forces winning them. Sore-hearted men in search of scape- 
goats for the blame of defeats and failures would continually 
have one prepared and named for them at the right hand of 
the President at Washington. He would receive small credit 
for good ad\nce, and his powers for preventing mischief were 
limited on every side in spite of his sounding title. This was 
strikingly exemplified by the results of the Fredericksburg 
campaign, undertaken against his counsel, lost as he expected, 
and much of the blame of it cast upon his head by a host of 
uninformed faultfinders. 

It was of the last importance to the stability of the Admin- 
istration that the tides of sure disappointment and discontent 
should rise and dash and be dissipated against such breakwaters 
as Stanton and Ilalleck and not be permitted to assail injuri- 
ously the one man whose personal hold upon the popular heart 
and confidence was \'ittd to the existence of the nation. Stu- 



320 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

dents of the Constitution of the British Empire may possibly 
find an analogy there by looking for it. 

It may fairly be said that the close of the summer of 1862 
foimd Mr. Lincoln's ofiicial staff, for the first time, fully pre- 
pared to deal with the work before him and them. Surely a 
year and a half was no excessive length of time for the accom- 
plishment of so great a feat of wisdom in selection. He had 
done well with such materials as he had within his reach in the 
beginning. It is not easy to see how he could have done bet- 
ter. J^ow, at last, he was efficiently provided, but before him 
opened gloomily " the dark days" of the war. The prospect or 
hope of a speedy collapse of the Eebellion had disappeared, 
and, for the moment, the Nation stood upon the defensive. 



DRAWN BATTLES. 321 



CHAPTER XL. 



DRA.WN BATTLES. 



The Fighting under Pope — News from the Army — The Changes of Com- 
manders — Lee in Maryland — The Antietam — Exhausted Patience — 
Removal of McClellan — A Great ]\Iisunderstanding. 

The position of the Army of the Potomac during the last 
week of August, 1862, and the days next following, called for 
the exercise of uncommon firmness and discretion. 

General McClellan arrived from Harrison's Landing on the 
21th of August, and reported to General Halleck for orders. 
On the 27th he removed his quarters from Acquia Creek to 
Alexandria, and was assigned to the duty of forwarding troops 
to General Pope. It was a time of universal gloom and deep 
excitement. The tongues of rumor, detraction, of every kind 
of bitterness, were so busy with all the questions of the hour 
that it was impossible to sift the true from the false of even 
wliat purported to be "evidence." This difficulty was seri- 
ously complicated by the practical untrustworthiness of any 
dispatches. The general in command had done his duty and 
knew it, and his despatches expressed his indomitable courage 
and confidence much more accurately than they did the con- 
dition of the army or the results of recent battles. 

On the 30th of August was fought the battle of Manassas 
(commonly called the Second Battle of Bull Bun) ; and the 
Battle of Cliantilly, which followed, may be regarded as part of 
it so far as the effect upon the army or people is concerned. A 
part of the army had beliaved badly and was demoralized, but 
only a part. It was unfortunate that the country at large and 
the soldiers out of the fight obtained a first and lasting impres- 



322 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

sion of the fighting under Pope from stragglers of broken regi- 
ments reporting to newspaper correspondents. More was lost 
in this way than could easily be remedied. General Pope 
himself reported of the Bull Run affair : " The troops are in 
good heart and marched off the field without the least hurry or 
confusion. Their conduct was very fine. . . . The enemy is 
badly whipped, and we shall do well enough. I think this 
army entitled to the gratitude of the country." 

General Halleck was inclined to take the same view of the 
matter, and said to General Pope, " You have done nobly." 

So he had. And the more carefully the records of that short 
campaign are searched, the better is the figure cut by its gen- 
eral, with some reservations as to his use of the pen. He 
seems to have been unaware of the feeling and opinion exist- 
ing among some of his subordinates. So was General Halleck, 
for a few days. But no such blindness troubled Mr. Lincoln. 
The President had heard from the Army in many ways, and 
even from an informal council of war of its corps and division 
commanders. 

There was something almost dramatic about that "council" 
and its consequences. Immediately after the Second Battle of 
Bull Eun, a call was made upon the civil employees of the 
"Washington Departments for volunteers to go over into Vir- 
ginia and aid in caring for the wounded. Many went ; and 
among them was a brother of one of the President's secretaries. 
This young man was met upon the field by a corps commander 
whom he knew, and was at once taken to the headquarters of 
another corps commander. Other well-known officers were 
present or were sent for. They came, they remained a longer 
or shorter time, they conversed freely and went away. The 
young man was directed to note down every name and every 
statement of opinion given, but not to be understood as doing 
anything of the kind. It was a strictly confidential inter- 
change of military views of the situation, and some of the ex- 
pressions were quite strong and marked by individuahties. At 



DRAWy BATTLES. 323 

the close, the corps commander remarked to his young friend : 
" We could not send all that in a dispatch to Washington ; but 
the quicker it is repeated to the President, the better for the 
army and the country." 

Means of rapid transportation were at once provided, and 
the next morning the weary, muddy, and, from his services 
among the wounded, somewhat bloodstained young man was 
closeted first with Mr. Lincoln and then with General Halleck 
and Mr. Stanton. The details of his report were never made 
public : but Mr. Lincoln had heard from the army. He had the 
unanimous though unofficial and^ entirely free opinion of a 
dozen of its best officers, perhaps "of a score, that it could no 
longer be successfully handled by General Pope, with the 
added assurance that these men spoke for large numbers of 
their companions of all grades and arms. Of the officers who 
constituted that informal but important council of war, some 
knew not at all that they were members of it, but more spoke 
with a full understanding and spoke directly for the purposes 
in hand. The greater number of them are dead, and so is their 
messenger, and so are all the men to whom he delivered his 
message. The effect was instantaneous, as may be seen by a 
comparison of dates. The President obviously had but one 
duty to perform, and he performed it without hesitation. 
General Pope was not formally removed, but he literally 
drifted out of the command as General McClellan drifted back 
into it. The Army of Virginia quietly ceased to be, and the 
Army of the Potomac set out at once for the battle-fields of 
Soutii Mountain and the Antietam. Glad enough would 
Mr. Lincoln have been, and well would it have been for the 
country, if he could on many another emergency have listened 
to a full and unreserved expression of the views of men hold- 
ing corresponding positions in that and other armies ; but the 
rules of the service, and the rigid requirements of military 
etiquette, and the impossibility of providing ways of access to 
himself, were all prohibitory. 



324 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

It was true, as General Pope had reported, that the army as 
a whole was in good heart and good condition. He might well 
feel personally hm-t and injured that it should so drift out from 
under him. General McClellan was again in command from 
and after September 2d. On the 3d he had in his hands in- 
formation which convinced him of General Lee's intention to 
cross the upper Potomac into Maryland. It was necessary 
that he should move at once, establishing his relations with the 
forces under his command while on the march. This is the 
process commonly spoken of as his reorganization of the army. 

The movement of the Confederate troops across the Potomac 
began at Leesburg between the 4th and 5th of September. 
Beyond all question they and their leaders believed that they 
had come to stay. They had exaggerated ideas of the injuries 
they had inflicted upon the Army of the Potomac and the 
forces under Pope. Still more erroneous was their conception 
of the state of pubhc opinion in Maryland. Wilder and more 
frantic still were their ideas of the condition of affairs at the 
!N"orth and of the relations of what they called " the Lincoln 
despotism" to the masses of the people. In one point only 
were they entirely correct. A series of victories in Maryland 
over the Union armies would undoubtedly have converted their 
di-eams into something very like reahties. The stake was tre- 
mendous, and it was played for with aU the boldness of exult- 
ing self-confidence, with the full consciousness of courage and 
ability, mth the deliberate purpose of fighting superior num- 
bers, and the expectation of beating them if those superior 
numbers could at all be induced to face them upon the field of 
battle. It is at least apparently true, also, that they were mis- 
led as to the whereabouts of a considerable part of their old 
antagonists of the peninsular battle-grounds. 

General McClellan moved very slowly, but the Confederate 
commanders were pushing their invasion with tremendous 
vigor. On the 15th of September, without any battle at aU, 
they captured the entire Union force aimlessly permitted to 



DBA WN BA TTLES. 325 

remain at Harper's Ferry, of about 11,000 men, with 73 pieces 
of artillery and with valuable material of small arms and stores. 
Ko military critic has ever discovered a good excuse for this 
blunder, and Mr. Lincoki could find none at the time. Ac- 
companying the news of the loss at Harper's Ferry were Gen- 
eral McClellan's reports of a brace of severe engagements at 
South Mountain, commonly described as the battle of that 
name. About 30,000 Confederates were driven out of good 
positions after a hard fight. The nature of the ground pre- 
vented concentration of the troops on either side*or the effec- 
tive use of superior numbers, but no high degree of "general- 
ship" was exhibited. As usual, the Rebels claimed a " victory," 
but it was not of the kind it would be necessary for them to 
win if they desired to make a long ^•isit in Maryland. It was 
also claimed by General McClollan as a victory; and so it was, 
for he had not been defeated ; but it was not what it should 
have been, and it prepared the way for the greater failure im- 
mediately to follow. 

The 15th and 10th of September, after the victory of South 
Mountain, did not contain much pursuing of the vanquished 
enemy, but on the 17th was fought the really terrible battle of 
the Antietam Creek. It was not at all a well-managed fij^ht, 
but it Wits splendidly contested by the armies on either side. 
The Union forces engaged had somewhat the advantage of 
numl)ers, as the rebels had of position. The former would 
have had a greater numerical advantage if their commander 
had made a proper use of them. That he did not do so enabled 
General Lee to extract a " drawn battle" from the jaws of what 
should have been a destructive defeat. He was then permitted 
to march away into Virginia unmolested. Not all the urgency 
brought to bear upon General McClellan by Mr. Lincoln could 
induce him to interfere with the movements of the enemy he 
had so thoroughly shattered, although he could have done so 
with troops who had not been under fire and were fresh. 

The patience of Mi\ Lincoln was once more exhausted by 



326 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

the short history of McClellan's new command of the Army of 
the Potomac. Too much had been wasted of men and mate- 
rials and precious opportunities. Too many costly advantages 
had been thrown away, and too many orders recklessly disre- 
garded. The remaining days of September and the whole of 
October were indeed consumed in unavailing efforts to drive 
him forward, while a force of Rebel cavalry under Stuart 
dashed across the Potomac and derisively rode all around him. 

On the 26th of October he began at last to move his army 
across the river. It was all over by the 2d of ]S"ovember ; but 
McClellan was still in doubt as to what he should do with it 
afterwards, and, on the Yth of November, he was finally re- 
lieved of his command. General Ambrose E. Burnside was 
named as his successor. 

It is manifest from the record that the latter general was 
selected from among a dozen officers of nearly equal fame, be- 
cause he was in some respects the least objectionable and had 
already held, with good success, an independent military com- 
mand in ISTorth Carolina. 

It seems hardly necessary to say, but to some it may be so, 
that Mr. Lincoln would not have removed General McClellan 
for other than strictly military reasons. In fact, without such 
reasons, clearly so marked out as to be i-ead by all unprejudiced 
observers, it would not have been politically safe to do so. 
Even as it was, the removal was both politically dangerous and 
pohtically necessary. 

General McClellan was already the representative of pro- 
slavery Unionism at the North, and of all the forms of discon- 
tent which were willing to co-operate mth it. His mistakes 
were his own. If he had obeyed Mr. Lincoln's urgency and 
consented to win a few more victories, or had made good use 
of such as were forced upon him, he could not have been set 
aside without assuring him an overwhelming triumph at the 
following Presidential election. Had he been left in com- 
mand, there is reason to doubt if the course of events would 



DRAWN BATTLES. 327 

not have been such that the destruction of slavery for which 
Mr. Lincobi was preparing would have been out of the ques- 
tion. 

There is a sense, not hard to find, in wliich the removal of 
General McClellan is a part of the Proclamation of Emancipa- 
tion which followed later. All antislaverj men understood it 
as a telling blow at their political opponents, as well as a thing 
done for the good of the army and of the Union cause. It sent 
a shock even through the minds of Southern leaders, for they 
well understood the divisions of public sentiment at the North. 
They were by no means as blind as were their followers to the 
swift changes of opinion concerning them and their cherished 
institution. They knew what this meant, and it was as if they 
had lost a battle. 

It may almost be said that General McClellan deserved the 
thanks of his country for giving the President good military 
reasons for making a removal so eminently desirable politi- 
cally. 

At the North, at the time, multitudes received the news 
with a storm of angry execrations. As they understood the 
matter, a great general unjustly put aside had generously come 
to the rescue at a critical moment. lie had rallied and re- 
organized a ruined army, and with it had won tremendous vic- 
tories, and had delivered his country from invasion if not from 
conquest. It is for many to tliis day impossible to grasp the 
situation as it was, or to regard such a setting forth as has been 
made above as other than grossly partisan. They cannot be 
made to believe that at the battle of tlie Antietam McClellan 
had at his disposal at least twice as many men as had Lee, all 
ever)' inch as good soldiers as his, as well equipped, as full of 
fight and enthusiasm, and that yet Lee actually fought with 
about equal numbers, the rest of McClellan's army not fighting 
at all. They are blind to the simple facts of the drawn battle, 
and the unhindered escape, and the non-emplo}nnent of forces 
in hand. 



ABEAEAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTEE XLI. 

EMANCIPATION. 

The War-Power and the Constitution. — A Struggle of Life and Death — 
The Hour and the Man — The Proclamation — Waiting for a Victory — 
An Unprepared People— Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus — 
Visiting the Army — The Reply of the Opposition. 

It is necessary at this point to recall with care the record 
of Mr. Lincoln as a life-long enemy of human slavery, and to 
understand fully the position he was forced to occupy regard- 
ing it. 

In the year 1850 he said to his friend Mr. Stuart : " The 
time will come when we must aU be Democrats or Abolition- 
ists. When that time comes, my mind is made up." In his 
great speech at Bloomington, Illinois in 1858, he said : " I 
believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave 
and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved, — I 
do not expect the house to fall, — but I do expect it wiU cease 
to be divided. It wiU become all one thing or all the other." 

In the private conversation, as in the public utterance, he 
clearly expressed a conviction which had become a part of his 
life. That conviction could not have been taken from him by 
any possible course of events or power of argument. From 
the date of the Bloomington speech, and from hour to hour, 
the course of events did but deepen as they justified the sure 
processes of his reason and their unchanged conclusion. 

Before the war began, he saw, as did many other men, that 
a success of the secession conspiracy and a division of the na- 
tional territory meant more than the triumph and permanence 
of human slavery in the Southern Confederacy. It meant also 



EMANCIPATION. 329 

a perpetual predominance of proslaverj influence in the nomi- 
nally Free Xorth. That influence was already so strong there 
as to threaten the stability of an openly Abolition Administra- 
tion. Its power was made to be felt even in strictly military 
matters from the beginning. Mr. Lincohi found it grapphng 
witli him for the mastery and assaihng him in every imagina- 
ble disguise. 

The fact grew plainer to the minds of all men, as the strife 
went on, that the institution of slavery was the real prize for 
which the armies were contending. Still, time was required 
to so fix and confirm the hearts and minds of the great majority 
that they could endure to have their secret comdctions formu- 
lated and proclaimed. 

Ml. Lincoln understood the people very well. He was a 
sort of revolutionary dictator. He was ready and willing to 
use all powers given him by his unwritten commission to 
" See to it that the Commonwealth suffers no harm." He was 
also a Constitutional President, under an oath to protect the 
riglits of all citizens of every part of the country. K he were 
not President of the South, he had no right to send troops 
there, to restore order and enforce his authority. The people 
of the seceded States were still his fellow-citizens, or it would 
have been idle to call them " rebels." Against them he cher- 
ished no atom of merely personal animosity, and he was desti- 
tute of mere sectional prejudices. His course cannot be at all 
understood by any man who narrowly imagines him as think- 
ing only of his duties to the populations within the Union 
army lines. 

In his inaugural address, he said : " I have no purpose, 
directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of 
slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no law- 
ful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." And, 
speaking as if to the people of the South : " You can have no 
conflict ^vithout being yourselves the aggressors : we are not 



330 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

They insisted on becoming liis enemies ; but he continued to 
be their friend to the end, even while resisting to the utter- 
most the aggressors who demanded and compelled conflict 
when he pleaded for peace. 

JS'o change of any consequence was made, or could be made, 
constitutionally, in the written law of the land respecting 
slavery. Mr. Lincoln's mind underwent no change as to his 
view of his " lawful right" thence derived. Any such right 
must therefore come to him in another way ; but he steadily 
and thoughtfully prepared himself to exercise it in the hour of 
its coming. 

At the time of Fremont's premature " proclamation" no law 
or lawful right had as yet been created. The power to set 
aside written law was inherent in the " dictatorship," but could 
come even to the dictator only from the hand of necessity and 
for the safety of the life of the Commonwealth. It was not 
personal to Mr. Lincoln, or, through or without him, to any of 
his subordinate officers. 

That slavery must die or that the Commonwealth must die 
became gradually but more and more plainly manifest. It was 
also plain that the death of the pubUc enemy must be by the 
hands of the war power and as a military execution, without 
waiting for the slow and doubtful processes of civil procedure. 
The remaining questions related only to the time and manner of 
an act so important. On the 13th of March and on the 16th of 
July, 1862, Mr. Lincohi had approved and signed Acts of 
Congress the effect of which was to give due form of law to 
General B. F. Butler's doctrine that all slaves of rebels in arms 
were " contraband of war." These Acts, with a little help, 
would have proved fatal to the institution in due time ; but 
they dealt with individuals and not with geographical areas or 
entire communities, and were subject to Congressional action 
in repeal or modification. They did much towards preparing 
the way for better things, however, and the President wisely 
embodied them in his first proclamation. He thereby absorbed 



EMANCIPATION. 331 

in and united with Ms o-wn action as Dictator and President 
the pre^-ious action of the legislative branch of the government. 
Members of Congress were enabled to say to each other, " The 
Commander-in-Chief has issued a general order embodying and 
enforcing our legislation." 

The " general order" contained and enforced such amplifica- 
tions as rendered the Dictatorial Proclamation forever inde- 
pendent of the Legislative Act. 

That the view here taken may not be deemed strained or 
over'WTought, it is best to condense it into Mr. Lincoln's own 
words. In a letter dated April 4, 1864, written to Mr. George 
C. Hodges, of Frankfort, Kentucky, he says : 

" I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional might be- 
come lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of 
the Constitution, through the preservation of the Nation. 
When, early in the war. General Fremont attempted military 
emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it an 
indispensable necessity. "When, a little later, General Cameron, 
then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I 
o])jected, because I did not yet think the indispensable neces- 
sity had come." 

Through these few sentences the whole course of his mental 
operations may be unerringly traced. 

The hour he waited for came at last, and his action came 
with it. The deed itself, and all the manner of its doing, bring 
out in striking illustration the inner life of the man. It sets 
forth once more his lifelong characteristic of foresight and 
previous preparation, that so delivered him from ruinous sur- 
prises. Even as he had patiently waited for the Eebellion, 
knowing that it would surely come, so he now waited for the 
hour of the Emancipation Proclamation, with faith in God 
that it also would come. 

In the summer of 1862 he prepared a draft of the impor- 
tant document. At about the last of July or the first of Au- 
gust he called a full meeting of his Cabinet. The members 



332 ABEARAM LINCOLN. 

of it had no information of the reason of their coming together, 
and Mr. Lincoln seemed in no hnrry to give them any. They 
were eminently representative men, and he knew that by the 
effect upon them of the paper he was about to read to them he 
could fairly judge its probable effect upon the nation. He 
was not yet prepared, mentally, for the struggle before him. 
He even trifled for a few minutes, internally steadying his own 
powers and gauging the status of the sober statesmen around 
him. He read to them a chapter of a book by " Orpheus C. 
Kerr," and heartily laughed at its drolleries. No man among 
them was aware of, or could penetrate, the depths of thought 
and emotion, or discern the gathering strength of will, behind 
that laugh. The seemingly frivolous delay had unseen uses ; 
but the members of the Cabinet looked at one another with a 
growing sense that their personal dignity was in peril. All 
cause for such nervousness disappeared when that of the Presi- 
dent himself had been removed and he had adjusted himself 
to his task. 

His demeanor suddenly underwent a change. The amused 
humorist vanished. In his place was a man who had reached 
a new grandeur of moral elevation to which he was pro- 
foundly anxious to raise each soul among them. He announced 
his purpose and read the paper which he had prepared. He 
stated, in good set terms, that he had not called them together 
to ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a procla- 
mation before them, suggestions as to which would be in order 
after they had heard it read. It was not so much for general 
consultation, therefore, as to finally announce a settled purpose 
and to receive counsel on minor points. 

There is no accurate report of the debate which followed, 
but the scene itself is pictorially presented, with an extreme of 
careful exactness, in the painting by Mr. F. B. Carpenter, pre- 
served in the Capitol at Washington. Mr. Chase, it is said, 
wished the language made stronger with reference to the arm- 
ing of the blacks, not perceiving that the emergency was al- 



EMANCIPATIOX. 333 

ready loaded to the very limits of its power to endure. yLr. 
Blair opposed the proclamation on the gromid that it would 
cost the Administration the fall elections, not seeing that the 
gift of freedom to the slave opened a perpetual fountain of 
popular support. Other remarks were made ; but little seems 
to have been effectively said until Mr. Seward spoke, as a 
statesman comprehending the effect of a measure so fully in 
accord with the tenor of his own life and work : 

" Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I ques- 
tion the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depres- 
sion of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, 
is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It may 
be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government — a 
cry for help — the government stretching out its hands to Ethi- 
opia, instead of Ethiopia stretching out its hands to the gov- 
ernment." (Mr. Caq^enter relates that Mr. Lincoln himself 
said, " His idea was that it would be considered our last shriek 
on the retreat.") Mr. Seward added that, in his opinion, the pub- 
lication of the prcjclamation should be delayed until it could fol- 
low some notable military success. The advice of the Secre- 
tary of State was undeniably sound, and Mr. Lincoln followed 
it. Quite likely the precise idea expressed by Mr. Seward was 
already in his mind. 

The Army of Virginia, under Pope, was at that time con- 
fronting the Kebels under Lee. A victory suflScient for the 
pm-pose might come any day. The President patiently waited 
for one ; but none came. The dark days of August closed with 
the Second Bull Run and Chantilly. Then McClellan was 
once more in command, but he was no emancipationist. 

The condition of Mr. Lincoln's mind, during those terrible 
days of enforced waiting, may be learned from his subsequent 
action and from his own account. He stated to Mr. F. B. 
Carpenter, the artist of the picture of the " First Reading :" 

" AVhen Lee came over the river, I made a resolve that when 
McClellan should drive him back, — and I expected he would 



334 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

do it, some time or other, — I would send the proclamation 
after him. I worked upon it and got it pretty much prepared. 
The battle of Antietam was fought on Wednesday, but I could 
not find out till Saturday whether we had really won a victory 
or not. It was too late to issue the proclamation that week, 
and I dressed it over a little, on Sunday and on Monday I 
gave it to them. The fact is, I never thought of the meeting 
of the governors at Altoona, and I can hardly remember that 
I knew anything about it." 

The latter clause refers to a conference of the War Gov- 
ernors, as they were called, of several of the free States, to con- 
fer as to the condition of public affairs, which by some had 
been supposed to have influenced the action of the President. 

A Cabinet meeting was held on the Saturday following the 
battle of the Antietam. There had been no great victory, in 
one sense ; but there had in another, for the army under Lee 
was defeated by its hard-earned " drawn battle" so completely 
that its campaign of invasion was ended and it had leisurely 
recrossed the Potomac. 

The members of the Cabinet were summoned, as before, not 
to give advice but to hear a decision. Mr. Lincoln told them 
that the time for delay or hesitation had gone by, and that 
Emancipation must now be made the declared policy of the 
Administration. Public sentiment would now sustain it. A 
strong and outspoken popular voice openly demanded it, and 
the demand came from the best friends of the government. 

That was not all. In a low voice, and reverently, Mr. Lin- 
coln added : " And I have promised my God that I will do it." 

Mr. Chase, who sat nearest him, heard but indistinctly the 
low-voiced utterance, and inquired : 

" Did I understand you correctly, Mr. President ? " 

Mr. Lincoln replied : 

" I made a solemn vow, before God, that, if General Lee 
should be driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the 
result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves." 



EMANCIPATION, 335 

The proclamation was issued on Monday, September 22, 
1S62, and was as follows : 

" I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of 
America, and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy 
thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as here- 
tofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically 
restoring the constitutional relation between the United States 
and each of the States, and the people thereof, in which States 
that relation is or may be suspended or disturbed. 

" That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, 
to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure ten- 
dering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all 
slave-States, so called, the people whereof may not then be in 
rebellion against the United States, and which States may then 
have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, 
immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery ^athin their re- 
spective limits ; and that the effort to colonize persons of Afri- 
can descent, with their consent, upon this continent or else- 
where, with the pre\dously obtained consent of the govern- 
ments existing there, will be continued, 

" That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as 
slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the peo- 
ple whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, 
shall be then, thenceforward and forever, free ; and the Execu- 
tive Government of the United States, including the military 
and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the 
freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress 
such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for 
their actual freedom. 

" That the Executive will, on the first day of January afore- 
said, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, 
if any, in which the people thereof respectively shall then be 
in rebellion against the United States ; and the fact that any 
State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith 



336 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

represented in the Congress of tlie United States, by members 
chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified 
voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the ab- 
sence of strong countervaihng testimony, be deemed conclusive 
evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then 
in rebellion against the United States. 

" That attention is hereby called to an Act of Congress, en- 
titled ' An Act to make an additional Article of War,' approved 
March 13, 1862, and which Act is in the words and figures 
following : 

" ' Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Kepresentatives 
of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That 
hereafter the following shall be promulgated as an additional 
article of war, for the government of the army of the United 
States, and shall be obeyed and observed as such ; 

" ' Article — All ofiicers or persons in the military or naval 
service of the United States are prohibited from emplo^ang 
any of the forces under their respective commands for the pur- 
pose of returning fugitives from service or labor who may 
have escaped from any persons to whom service or labor is 
claimed to be due ; and any officer who shall be found guilty 
by a court-martial of violating this article shall be dismissed 
from the service. 

" ' Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That this Act shall take 
effect from and after its passage.' 

" Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an Act entitled ' An 
Act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, 
to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other pur- 
poses,' approved July 16, 1862, and which sections are in the 
words and figures following : 

" 'Section 9. And be it further enacted. That all slaves of all 
persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebelhon against the 
government of the United States, or who shall in any way give 
aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking 
refuge within the lines of the army ; and all slaves captured 



EMANCIPATIOX. 337 

from sucli persons, or deserted by them, and coming under the 
control of the government of the United States, and all slaves 
of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied 
by rebel forces, and afterwards occupied by the forces of the 
United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be 
forever free of their servitude and not again held as slaves. 

" ' Section 10. And be it further enacted, That no slave es- 
caping into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, 
from any other State, shall be delivered up, or in any way im- 
peded or hindered of his hberty, except for crime, or some of- 
fense against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive 
shdl first make oath that the person to whom the labor or 
service is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not 
borne arms against the United States in the present rebellion, 
nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto ; and no person 
engaged in the military or naval service of the United States 
shall, under any pretense whatever, assume to decide on the 
validity of the claim of any person to the ser\'ice or labor of 
any other person, or surrender up any such person to the 
claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service.' 

"And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons en- 
gaged in the military or naval service of the United States to 
observe, obey, and enforce, within their respective spheres of 
service, the Act and sections above recited. 

" And the Executive will in due time recommend that all 
citizens of the United States who shall have remained loyal 
thereto throughout the rebellion shall (upon the restoration of 
the constitutional relation between the United States and their 
respective States and people, if that relation shall have been 
suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts 
of the United States, including the loss of slaves. 

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

" Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-second day of 
September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 



338 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

and sixty-two, and of the independence of the United States 
the eighty-seventh. 

[l. s.] " Abeaham LmcoLN. 

" By the President : 

" William H. Seward, Secretary of State." 

It was true that a day in the future was named as the date 
upon which the Executive axe would fall, but all men knew 
that it was as if the intervening time were abeady past and 
that the act of emancipation was final. Neither retraction nor 
modification was among the possibilities of the future. 

It was to be expected that the antislavery elements of the 
people should welcome ^vith enthusiasm so bold and deadly a 
stroke at the abomination they hated. They would surely be 
glad to see the future course of the Administration determined, 
and they would accept the results as accomplished, for they 
were generally men of faith. 

Not all, indeed ; for a shiver of dread and doubt swept over 
a large mass of them, and made itself audible in foreboding 
mutters and dark prophecies. 

It was even more a matter of course that the conservative ele- 
ments would withhold their open approval until the course of 
events should justify the act. They would require time to re- 
cover from the shock of a new idea and to accustom their vision 
to the glare of a new light. 

There were others to be considered in an emergency so tre- 
mendous. Mr. Lincoln weU knew that the proslavery and all 
other anti-Administration pohticians at the North would in- 
stantly be stirred to a white heat of activity. The faU elec- 
tions were near, and he had before him a struggle on behalf of 
the Nation. It was not well to confess openly that it was a 
struggle of life and death. The men with whom he was to 
contend were every way as dangerous as the armies under Lee 
with which they were co-operating. But for them, indeed, and 
hope and aid and comfort from them, the armies under Lee 



EMANCIPATION. 339 

conld never have been gathered in the first place, nor so long 
have been held together. The main confidence of the Con- 
federacy, at the outset, had been in a divided Xorth. So it re- 
mained, in greater or less degree, until near the end ; and the 
fact is recorded in the very localities of the battle-fields of the 
Antietam and Gettysburg. 

Knowing how all the detrimental activities of N'orthern 
treason would be stimulated by ^he declared and open " Aboli- 
tionism" of the Administration, it was needful for the latter to 
put into the hands of its supporters a new and powerful weapon, 
for prompt use wherever needed. The foe in the rear, as well 
as the foe in front, must be made to feel the strong grip of the 
War power. 

!Mr. Lincoln had prepared yet another proclamation, of tem- 
porary effect, but that sounded sternly supplementary of the 
first. It was a proclamation " suspending the Writ of Habeas 
Corpus" in all cases of persons arrested, confined, or sentenced 
by court-martial, as accused or convicted of certain specified 
classes of offenses, all of which might be included under the 
general head of " gi^'ing aid and comfort to the insurrection." 
Nominally based upon a clause of the written Constitution, it 
went so far beyond the pro^'isions of that clause that, in the 
opinion of many lawyers, it gave good reason for the storm of 
fierce denunciation with wliich it was received. Not the Pro- 
clamation of Emancipation itself was made the text of so many 
angry speeches and editorials. The speakers loudly declared 
that " freedom of speech is destroyed," and the writers that 
" the liberty of the press is taken away." It was not so easy 
to convince the hearers or readers of these philippics that the 
" Despot at Washington" had actually done the deed, as yet. 
That part of the storm blew itself over until the following 
winter. It then broke out again in Congress, and there it ex- 
hausted itself in speeches and resolutions of a nature which 
profitably compelled that body to sustain Mr. Lincohi's course 
most thoroughly, by enacting the necessary and customary 



340 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

laws in such, cases. Congress always caught up with him 
before the end of a session. It was yet to be discovered how 
well he was then providing for future emergencies, and how 
very needful it was that the required provision should be made 
a good while beforehand. 

All this was attended to. But Mr. Lincoln had a matter 
of especial statesmanship very close at hand. If General 
McClellan had striven to impress ujjon him one thing more 
than another, it had been the politically conservative opinions 
of the commissioned and non-commissioned officers and rank 
and file of the Army of the Potomac. He had told the Presi- 
dent, in about so many words, that they could not be relied 
upon or held together for an " Abolition war." 

Mr. Lincoln did not believe this setting forth implicitly, for 
a great part of that army consisted of men who had voted for 
him in 1860. They surely had not changed their oiDinions 
greatly under the influences of the camp and battle-field. 

Still it was a matter to be looked into, especially as ominous 
reports came rapidly in concerning the tone of talk at many 
representative " mess-tables." 

The President was detained in "Washington for a week or so 
by his other duties ; but by the first week of October he was 
with the army, on a long and very sociable visit. The victori- 
ous troops were "resting," under McClellan's care, from the 
fatigues of the Antietam campaign ; while Lee's defeated army, 
not needing so much rest, was busily carrying on the war. 

For several days Mr. Lincoln went about among them, 
freely mingling and conversing with officers and men. Every- 
where he was received with enthusiasm, and often with tokens 
of strong affection. At no point or place or in any part of any 
command could he detect perceptible signs of disaffection. 
Such moderate ebullitions of prejudices as were now mere 
"political reminiscences" had pretty nearly subsided by the 
end of that week. Had the talk among the true-hearted sol- 
diers, around their camp-fires, been even louder than it was. 



emaxcipation: 341 

the President's visit would liave sufficed to restore a better 
state of mind. 

All political and other perils were freely discussed by Mr. 
Lincoln with McClellan himself, and very effectively. On the 
6th of October the former returned to Washington. On the 
very next day the latter issued a " general order" reminding 
the officers and men of his command of their duty to the civil 
authorities. It was also, in effect, a sharp suggestion and re- 
minder that they were dissatisfied with the political attitude of 
the government which they were defending. The great ma- 
jority would never have known it if they had not been told, 
and doubted it even then. He said : 

" Discussion by officers and soldiers concerning public meas 
ures determined upon and declared by the government, when 
carried beyond the ordinary temperate and respectful expres- 
sion of opinion, tends greatly to impair and destroy the dis- 
ciphne and efficiency of the troops by substituting the spirit of 
political faction for the firm, steady, and earnest support of the 
authority of the government, which is the highest duty of the 
American soldier." 

It was admirable. It was the precise form of words and 
sound doctrine he should have meditated upon before penning 
some of his own dispatches to the President. It sounded well 
now ; but the army and nation somehow perversely paraphrased 
it so that it did him no good. They made it read : " Fellow- 
soldiers, you and I are of one mind in this matter. You con- 
demn this accursed AboKtion policy as bitterly as I do ; but it 
is our duty to say no more about it than we can help, just now. 
"We must keep our opinions to ourselves." 

There was no open fault to be found with such a " general 
order," but it was really a species of dull reply to the Emanci- 
pation Proclamation and the Suspension of the "Writ of Habeas 
Corpus, issued by the military representative of the Opposi- 
tion. 

The disloyal elements in the army were so small that the 



342 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

dismissal of one or two subordinate officers who indulged in 
mutinous talk furnished an ample corrective. In fact, it now 
began to dawn upon the minds even of politicians that an army- 
is a great machine, and that Mr. Lincoln had done nothing at 
all to loosen his strong grasp of the controUing mechanism of 
the Army of the Potomac. 

That of General McClellan had been loosened materially, and 
a few weeks later it was severed altogether and forever. ITot 
even the soldiers themselves were then aware, at first, how 
much more close and personal thenceforward would be their 
relations to the one man whom nobody could remove or trans- 
fer, and under whom they served continuously, no matter what 
subordinate officer of his selection might for the time intervene. 



TEE HARDEST BLOW. 343 



CHAPTEK XLII. 



THE HARDEST BLOW. 



Home-Life in the Wliite House — Death of Little Willie — Proclamation of 
Thanksgiving and Prayer — Circular Letter to the Army on Sabbath 
Keeping — Spiritual Growth. 

The year 1862 was a period of rapid growth for Abraham 
Lincoln. It was a cup filled to overflowing with trials of every 
kind and nature. 

He was calling upon all the families in the land to send 
their sons to die upon the many battle-fields of the war, and 
the responsibility of that sacred but awful duty weighed heavily 
upon him. He was in the kind of furnace whose fires either 
harden a man or burn away the dross from the better metal of 
his composition. It is well to study the process, somewhat, in 
order to obtain a clearer j^erception of the result. 

There could be but little of home life at the White House. 
It was the business centre of a vast and growing web of civil 
and military ofiSces and operations. Nevertheless, it was all 
the home the President could have. His wife presided over 
the few apartments reserved for family uses and hospitalities. 
There were social features attached to the duties of the Execu- 
tive, but these, for the greater part, assumed a public and offi- 
cial character. 

Nearly to the end of the first year of Mr. Lincoln's term, 
there had been one brightness in and about the rooms and 
offices which at times gave them almost a home-like look, for 
his two younger boys came and went, through all of them, at 
their own childish will. The elder of these children, Willie, 
was a peculiarly promising boy, and Thomas, or "Tad," 



344 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

tlie younger, was full of merry miscliief, the ludicrous 
effect of whicli was in no wise lessened by the impediment in 
his speech whenever he was called to an account. That was 
not very often, indeed, nor a very serious matter for him or 
his brother. Tad could exj)lore the garret, discovering the 
place where all the bell-wires in the house were attached to a 
central pinion, and could set all bells, and all human answerers 
of bells, in futile motion. Willie could slit into ribbons the 
cloth covering of the private secretary's table. Both or either 
could come and stand by their father's knee, at times, when 
grave statesmen and pompous generals were presenting to him 
matters of national or w^orld-wide importance. Such rebukes 
as might occasionally be administered to them savored very 
little of " army discipline." They were of more value to their 
father and to his work than anybody knew, even then. But 
they were to render a greater and a higher service. 

In February, 1862, while Mr. Lincohi was straining every 
nerve to obtain from General McClellan the forward movement 
of the army which a discontented people so loudly demanded, 
the boys were taken sick and little Willie died. 

The "White House was a gloomy place during the illness of 
the children, but it was none the less a busy one. All work 
went on as usual. If the President left his office to visit the 
sick-room, it was only to return again and meet as before the 
hourly tribulations of his unrelaxing service of his country. 
Even the presence of death in the house could not privilege 
him to remit for one moment his supervision of all the multi- 
tudinous life and death intrusted to his care by the people he 
was ruling. 

It is impossible for any man or woman who has never passed 
through some such trial to grasp and comprehend the inner 
experiences which surely came to Mr. Lincoln at that time. 
A multitude of those who have endured corresjDonding ordeals 
will need no other key to the understanding of some of his 
subsequent utterances. 



THE HARDEST BLOW. 345 

The good lady who acted as nurse for the little sufferers re- 
lates that their father came in, at times, to watch by them, and 
that on one occasion he walked up and down the room, saying 
sadly : " This is the hardest trial of my' hf e ! Why is it ? 
Why is it ?" 

It was not merely a selfish expression of petulant sorrow. 
Just so he was accustomed to walk up and down, in his great 
Executive work-room, alone, at night, after the news had 
come of some great battle, whether a victory or defeat. It 
was late, indeed, when the sound of his slow, heavy, grief- 
laden footsteps ceased, on the nights after Ball's Bluff, Chan- 
cellorsville, and Fredericksburg, and in each case the agonized 
question upon his lips must have been the same. 

To all such questions, when honestly asked, there is an an- 
swer, although it may not always be heard at once. A part of 
it seems to have been sent to Mr. Lincoln through this very 
lady, lumbers of kind, good people who knew it chd their 
best to send it to him. Dr. J, G. Ilolland records of her that, 
after the worst had come and the stroke had fallen, when she 
told Mr. Lincoln, in conversation, her own story of trial ; that 
she was a widow, all alone, her husband and two cliildren being 
in heaven ; she added that she saw the hand of God in it all, 
and had never loved Him before her affliction as she had 
since. 

Mr. Lincoln inquired of her : " How is that brought about ?" 

She replied : " Simply by trusting in God and feeling that 
He does all things well." 

He asked : " Did you submit fully under the first loss ?" 

Little she may have guessed what memories of suffering 
were lurking behind the few words of that simple question. 
She did not know what shattering of the very reason and 
clouding of the brain of the man before her had resulted from 
his inability to " submit fully under the first loss." That had 
been long ago, and she was thinldng only of the present. She 
answered : 



346 ABEARAM LINCOLN. 

" !N"ot wholly ; but as blow came upon blow, and all was taken, 
I could and did submit, and was very hapf)y." 

He responded : " I am glad to bear you say that. Tour 
experience will help me to bear my afflictions." He had de- 
termined to imitate her and to fully submit, now blow upon 
blow had come. 

On the morning of the funeral of Willie, he said of the 
prayers offered for him by the good people all over the land : 
"I am glad to hear that. I want them to pray for me. I 
need their prayers." 

That to theirs he added his own is also a matter of record : 
and yet there have been, and perhaps now are, men and women 
so grossly ignorant of human nature as to suppose that such an 
effect, so produced upon such a man, and followed by an in- 
creasing instead of diminishing attrition of toil and trial, was 
or could be other than eternally indelible. 

A few weeks later, before the grass grew well upon the 
grave of little Willie, occurred the terrific fighting and slaughter 
of Shiloh and Corinth, in which victory was wrested from the 
jaws of defeat at the cost of the sons of thousands of darkened 
households. It was an occasion for thankfulness, and Mr. 
Lincoln issued a proclamation of thanksgiving for that and 
other victories, asking the people to " render thanks to our 
Heavenly Father for these inestimable blessings." 

The thanks were sincere, for the gleams of light from the 
West were greatly needed in those days of national darkness 
and depression ; but the lesson of the President's personal trial 
followed in the plain words which directed those who offered 
thanks also to " implore spiritual consolation in behalf of all 
those who have been brought into affliction by the casualties 
and calamities of civil war." 

]^ot then, perhaps not now, could Southern fathers and 
mothers accept the idea that he could not possibly have ex- 
eluded them, in his mental vision of the sufferers who were in 
need of " spiritual consolation," but they were no moi-e ex- 



THE HARDEST BLOW. 347 

eluded from his thought than they were from the express terms 
of the proclamation. 

There was little occasion for Mr. Lincoln to express himself 
upon doctrinal points. His early life and subsequent associa- 
tions had put it out of his power to examine, approve, and ac- 
cept any one formulated creed of any one church or sect, even 
if he had set himself at the task of selection ; but his reverence 
for God and His revealed law continued to increase. 

When a delegation of well-meaning gentlemen called upon 
him to urge, in effect, that no more battles should be fought 
on Sunday, as so many already had been fought, he could re- 
ply, half humorously, that the Eebel commanders would need 
to be taken into consultation before an}'thiug definite could be 
done in that direction. Nevertheless, on the 16th of Novem- 
ber, 18G2, he sent out to the soldiers a circular letter which 
gave his views upon the Sunday question very distinctly. He 
urged upon them that, " The importance for man and beast of 
the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian sol- 
diers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment 
of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine Will, 
demand that Sunday labor in the army and navy be reduced 
to the measure of strict necessity." He added, even more 
strenuously : " The discipline and character of the national 
forces should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imper- 
iled, by the profanation of the day or the name of the Most 
High." 

The only escape from the obvious meaning of these and 
many other similar utterances, as expressions of the operations 
and condition of Mr. Lincoln's mind at this time, is to roundly 
charge him with h}^ocri8y. 

This, too, has been done ; but the absurdity of the allegation 
comes out in strong relief when the words he spoke are exam- 
ined in connection with dates and facts, and particularly when 
collated vdth the sad event in his own family. 

It is now forever too late to call in question either the fact or 



348 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

the depth of his religious convictions. It is too late to deny 
that he again and again made public as well as private j)rofes- 
sion of his simple faith. Especially is it of no manner of im- 
portance for the best of witnesses to testify, " he used to talk, 
sometimes, kind o' half-way infidel, when I knew him, back in 
Illinois." The testimony may cheerfully be accepted as hon- 
estly given, but it does not bear at all upon the case before the 
court. 



TEE TRENT AFFAIR. 349 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

THE TKENT AFFAIR. 

Two Frontier Posts — "Western Successes — A Slice at a Time — Trouble -with 
England— Shortsighted Patriotism— A Message to the English People — 
Captain Wilkes Promoted — Border State Unionism. 

At the outset of tlie Eebellion the District of Columbia was 
as much within the intended boundaries of the Confederacy as 
was any similar area on the northern line of the State of Ten- 
nessee. Maryland was even more nearly ready for secession 
than Kentucky; and the difficulty of retaining either State 
in the Union was about the same, and required the operation 
of competent armed forces as well as prudent statesmanship. 
Washington city was therefore, in the beginning, a position 
occupied by the Union troops well within the enemy's lines. 
Afterwards it became an all-important frontier post. 

That the city was occupied or held at all was due to Mr. 
Lincoln's success in carrying on the war for months before the 
people generally knew there was one going forward, 

A serious aggravation and complication of the difficulties of 
the situation resulted from this history and locality of the 
political capital. The minds of men, at home and abroad, be- 
came absorbed in watching the fluctuations of the struggle for 
the capture, at one time, of the city of Washington and, at 
another, of the almost correspondingly situated city of Eich- 
mond. The interest in these campaigns, their advances and 
retreats, their many and bloody battles, became so deep that 
equally important contests in other parts of the great field 
failed to receive the popular attention they merited. Had the 
importance of successes in the West been better understood by 



350 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: 

the people, tlieir depressions over disasters in the East would 
have been, at times, advantageously diminished. 

To the mind of Mr. Lincoln, as to many other minds, *civil 
and mihtary, it was an axiom that the Confederacy must needs 
be taken possession of, as he curtly expressed it, " a slice at a 
time." That was the way in which it was done ; but it was not 
always easy to persuade men of the value of the consecutive 
shces as they were cut off and secured. 

In the early days of the war the great State of Missouri was 
more in doubt as to its pohtical future than was Maryland. Its 
loss would have entailed consequences every way as disastrous 
to the Union cause ; but the rapid series of movements and suc- 
cesses, beginning with those of General John C. Fremont, 
which j)laced it beyond the reach of the Confederate com- 
manders was but moderately appreciated on the Atlantic sea- 
board and not at aU in Europe. It was won and held by 
achievements of high merit both in statesmanship and arms ; 
and in hke mamier was the State of Kentucky severed from 
the hopes of the Confederacy. Subsequent operations were 
transferred from the Ohio River and the Illinois line of the 
Mississippi River and the Iowa border, away down to the Hue 
of the Cumberland River, and the grand result was accepted 
by the pubHc very much as if a ripe apple had fallen from a 
tree. The consecutive apples fell, indeed, but the shaking of 
the tree began very early in the season and cost the hves of 
many thousands of brave men. 

There was a respectable amount of popular rejoicing when a 
permanent foothold was won, by the Federal forces under Burn- 
side, on the sea-coast of North Carolina ; but the grumbhng mul- 
titude refused to see that it was of any great importance to the 
general result. 

Even when, in April, 1862, the city of New Orleans, and 
■with it the mouth of the Mississippi River, fell into the hands 
of the national troops and a fair degree of enthusiasm was 
kindled, for a moment, nine men out of ten would have tossed 



THE TRENT AFFAIR. 351 

their hats more zealously over the news of a much less fruitful 
victory on the Potomac. 

It was not so with Mr. Lincoln. From first to last he 
watched the course of events in the West with an interest 
which never flagged. All that country was familiar groimd to 
him, and he made himself thoroughly master of the peculiar 
campaigning required for its reduction. He knew the rivers 
and their variations of flood and fall ; the lowlands and the 
highlands and their roads and lack of roads ; more than all, 
he knew, better than did the Eastern generals and statesmen 
around him, the peculiar characteristics of the varied popula- 
tions and how very far they were from being one people. 

The civil war was a War for the Union in more ways than 
one. In all its processes it operated as a national unifier, and 
Mr. Lincoln aided the processes as best he could. He drew 
Western soldiers to fight in the Army of the Potomac until he 
changed materially the originally somewhat sectional composi- 
tion of that organism. He sent Eastern troops to join in the 
marclies and battles in Kentucky and Tennessee. It was not 
by any manner of accident that volunteers from widely sepa- 
rated localities found themselves marching up to the guns of 
the enemy shoulder to shoulder. Even as early as December, 
1862, the records show that the Army of the Potomac con- 
tained regiments, batteries, or brigades from Wisconsin, In- 
diana, Michigim, Minnesota, Ohio, and Illinois. At a some- 
what later date, the Army of the Cumberland contained, in 
like manner, distinct organizations from Pennsylvania, New 
York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, and 
Maine. This wise blending of the contingents of the several 
States continued to the end of the war. 

How closely the President watched the military operations 
in the West appears from his dispatches and correspondence. 
It is further illustrated by his recognition of the successive 
achievements of Pope, Halleck, Sherman, Sheridan, Grant, and 
a lonf]r list of other meritorious ofiicers. 



352 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

His eyes were everywhere ; and everywhere the commanders 
and soldiers, in camp and field, were made conscious of his 
thoughtful sympathy, and made to feel the eager help with 
which he urged them to the performance of their duty. He 
gave them all but his personal presence, and his telegraphic 
correspondence proves that they almost had that also. Still the 
records of battles and sieges, in whatever section or locality, 
belong to the history of the war and not to the " life" of the 
man. 

The year 1862 contained other than military problems for 
Mr. Lincoln to meet and solve. Our foreign affairs were suf- 
ficiently compHcated by the almost unconcealed sympathy of 
England and France with the Jefferson Davis government. 
Mr. Seward had already established a high reputation as a 
diplomatist by the skill and vigor with which he had continu- 
ally parried their expressions of half -angry discontent. The 
Confederate ruler had it in mind to establish closer relations 
with these very powers, and with that object sent out two com- 
missioners, duly accredited. These men, named Mason and 
Slidell, had both been members of the Senate of the United 
States. Escaping from Charleston to Cuba, they sailed from 
Havana, on the 7th of ISTovember, on the British mail-steamer 
Trent, bound for St. Thomas. On the next day the Trent was 
stopped at sea by the United States war-steamer San Jacinto, 
Captain Wilkes ; the two commissioners were taken out of her 
by force, against the protests of her officers, and carried to the 
United States to be shut up in Fort "Warren. 

It was a high-handed proceeding, strongly resembhng, in 
many of its features, the accustomed course of Great Britain in 
dealing with weaker powers ; and the indignation it aroused in 
the British mind, official and otherwise, was extreme. It was 
natural that such should be the case ; but the tone and manner 
in which the indignation found expression rendered the task of 
offering reparation a peculiarly hard one. The path to hostili- 
ties was made easy and the path to peace was half shut up. 



THE TEEXT AFFAIR. 353 

At the same time Mr. Lincoln's perplexities were multiplied 
by the state of the public mind at the Xorth. It was exceed- 
ingly bitter against England, for it was well understood that 
her ill offices to us in our hour of trouble had but lamely halted 
short of open war, and that further evil was sure to come to us 
from her. Popular patience was nearly exhausted, and, for a 
moment, the general opinion was plainly and loudly uttered 
that avowed and regular hostilities could do us little more liann 
than could the veiled but steady pressure and the secret thrusts 
of a half -concealed enmity. The capture of the two Kebel emis- 
saries was hailed with an acclaim as boisterous as if Captain 
"Wilkes had won a great sea-fight and had not disturbed the 
shadowy " law of nations" in the least. He became, in fact, the 
hero of the hour. 

It was necessary, however, that we should have no open 
quarrel with England, and the law of the matter was sufficiently 
in her favor to enable the United States to withdraw with 
dignity, almost in spite of her. 

At that juncture of the struggle with ^ the South, a new 
crisis ; British fleets upon the coast ; British supplies of 
money and war material jiouring into the ports of the Con- 
federacy without restriction, instead of under serious diffi- 
culties ; British annoyance of Northern seaports, and the neces- 
sity for the immediate conquest of the Canadas by the United 
States, — would have added terribly to the burdens of the nation. 
The result to the United States might have been the same, in 
the long-run ; but the " nm" would have been longer, and the 
cost vastly greater. England, indeed, might have been badly 
crippled ; but there would have been loss instead of gain in 
that, for no sensible American wishes to see her crippled. In 
fact, it is hard to imagine anything more short-sighted and 
stupid than the enmity of the then government of England to 
the cause of the Union. As Mr. Lincoln pointedly remarked 
to the English people in his next Message to the Congress of 
the United States, the shortest way out of the commercial diffi- 



354 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

ciilties resulting to foreign nations from our civil war was to 
be found in tlie prompt suppression rather than in the pro- 
longed maintenance of the Rebellion. It was strictly true ; 
and if England and France suffered losses from the continu- 
ance of the war, the responsibility therefor was largely their 
own. England was practically and very effectively the ally of 
the South, on land and sea ; while the animus of the French 
Imperial Government, never more than externally courteous, 
found its most perfect expression at last in its ill-fated Mexican 
policy, rendered possible only by the fact that the hands of the 
United States were tied from interfering. 

The refusal of Mr. Lincoln to be dragged into a war with 
England was a bitter disappointment to the Confederacy and 
to all our other national enemies, and not even the truly ad- 
mirable management of the matter by the Secretary of State 
could altogether satisfy the angry patriots who had glorified 
Captain Wilkes. 

The government was roundly and lavishly berated ; but the 
two Rebel commissioners were liberated ; and Captain "Wilkes 
was soon promoted. 

Mr. Lincoln was under a perpetual pressure from the most 
sincere and earnest supj^orters of the government, for these 
were mostly men of positive minds and strong convictions. 
They were the very men to make a great nation out of, and 
they spoke their minds liberally. They could not see all the 
obstacles in his way, as he saw them, nor was it always safe to 
explain too fully and minutely what he was doing. 

The very existence of some of his most serious hindrances 
had to be kept to himself. The men were by no means numer- 
ous who could have been made to understand the methods pur- 
sued with the border-States, and notably with Kentucky. 
That name and those of Maryland and Missouri and Delaware, 
and so forth, were but geographical expressions to the great 
majority. The President, however, was dealing, not with geo- 
graphy and local boundaries, but with men, and their prejudices 



TEE TRENT AFFAIR. 355 

and fears and self-interests, and, what was all-important, with 
their sure changes of opinion. 

In the same Message to the Congress above mentioned, he 
was able to say : " These three States, of Maryland, Kentneky, 
and Missouri, neither of which would promise a single soldier 
at the first, have now an aggregate of not less than forty 
thousand in the field for the Union ; while, of their citizens, 
certainly not more than a third of that number, and they of 
douljtful whereabouts and doubtful existence, are in arms 
against it." 



356 ABEAEAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTER XLIY. 

A DAEK WESTTEK. 

Fredericksburg — A Lost Opportunity — Burnside and Hooker — The Bur- 
dens of a Military Establishment — Congressional Counselors — The 
Heart of the Nation — An Extraordinary Ambassador — The Birth of 
the Union League. 

The year 1862 closed, both for the country and for Mr. 
Lincoln, in the great grief of the defeat of the Army of the 
Potomac at Fredericksburg. It was a blow of peculiar severity 
to the President, for he was made to seem responsible for the 
movements which led to it and for the mismanaged battle itself. 
It affected him very deeply, and yet, now that all the facts 
have been sought out, it is impossible to charge him with any 
fault in the premises. 

That he had earnestly insisted upon active operations was 
true. He had done that daily, from the outset ; but he had 
not undertaken to direct details ; and the inexcusable blunders 
of the Fredericksburg fight were committed without his 
knowledge. 

The history of the affair had deep lessons in it. By an un- 
derstanding with General Burnside, General McClellan con- 
tinued in command until the 9th of November, and the orders 
for the forward movement were issued by him in person, l^o 
change, for a number of days, was made in the plans which he 
had previously approved. General Halleck had at once called 
upon General Burnside for a " plan of campaign," and the 
latter prepared and submitted an abstract of his conception of 
the situation. This did not meet the approval of the General- 
in-Chief, and he at once went, in person, to General Bnrnside's 
headquarters, at Warrenton, Virginia. Here, on the 12th and 



A DABK WINTEB. 357 

13tli of the month, a long conference was held, which resulted 
in the submission of their separate plans to the President. On 
the 14th, General Halleck telegraphed to General Bumside 
Mr. Lincoln's assent to the views of the latter, but with this 
vital and unmistakable indication, in the express words of the 
dispatch : " He thinks it [your plan] will succeed if you move 
rapidly. Otherwise, not." 

Nothing could be more plain and definite in the rendering 
of a military decision. Subsequent investigations justify Mr. 
Lincoln. If General Burnside had moved rapidly, as he did 
not, his troops would have been in possession of the very posi- 
tion at Fredericksburg, then unoccupied, from wliich he after- 
wards vainly strove to dislodge the iron veterans of General 
Lee. 

The approval of his plan, as submitted, by no means im- 
plied that he should permit the best general of the Confederacy, 
with a recorded force of 78,228 effective men and guns in pro- 
portion, to deliberately intrench himself on ground of liis own 
choosing, and then, without any definite plan of battle, to hurl 
against them, in vague incapacity, column after column of 
doomed volunteers. 

That is about all that can be said of the generalship of the 
battle of Fredericksburg. The men behaved splendidly. They 
inflicted sharp losses upon their antagonists. They were sent 
to do an impossibility, and they failed simply because it was 
an impossibility ; but, for a hurt and disappointed moment, 
half the nation beHeved that they had been ordered to the vain 
effort by a " civilian" President, interfering ^vith and over- 
ruling his general in the field. 

General Burnside was under no pressure whatever which 
need have impelled him to the assault of General Lee's posi- 
tion ; and there was no good reason, political or mihtary, why 
the Eebel army should not have been permitted to encamp all 
winter in those particular intrenchments. If Lee could have 
been induced to do that very thing, as he surely could not have 



358 ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 

been, being a man of uncommon good sense in sucli matters, 
the result would have been a greater advantage to tbe Union 
arms than had been won upon the banks of the Antietam 
Creek. The very maintenance of his army was draining the 
life-blood of the Confederacy, while the resources of the North 
had hardly as yet been drawn upon. " Active operations" to 
keep him there would have been grand generalship. Much 
hard fighting would have been required for such a feat ; but all 
the while the Confederacy would have been bleeding to death, 
and the Army of the Potomac would not have scored another 
bloody disaster. 

The American people had no experience of what is called 
" militarism," and had but little actual knowledge of the need- 
less monstrosities which curse the Old "World under the guise 
of " governments." A consequence of this was that a most 
erroneous impression prevailed, throughout the free States, as 
to the nature and extent of the sacrifices they had made and as 
to their remaining capacity for more of the same kind. 

Every great nation in Europe is compelled, habitually, year 
by year, to do all that the North had done, up to that time, 
except as to the cost of what manufacturing establishments de- 
scribe as " the plant" of their undertakings. That is, the pro- 
vision of machinery and apj)liances and the needful outlays 
involved in beginnings upon new ground. The waste had 
been considerable, in many directions, but the growth and 
prosperity of the community, as a whole, had not been danger- 
ously interfered with. A very different state of things existed 
at the South, owing to fundamental defects of the Southern 
social structure. 

The battle of Fredericksburg was fought on the 13th of De- 
cember, just after the assembling of Congress, while Mr. Lin- 
coln was preparing to deal with the most dangerous period of 
his pohtical administration. It rendered a winter campaign 
in Virginia an impossibility, and made necessary another 
change in the command of the Army of the Potomac. Gen- 



A BARE WINTER. 359 

eral Bumside was relieved and General Joseph Hooker was 
named in his place. 

" Fighting Joe," as his immediate command had delighted 
to call him, was a tried soldier, but, regarded as a general in 
charge of a great army, he was necessarily another experiment. 
Neither the President, nor the army, nor the country at large, 
was ready to invest him with unlimited confidence as to his 
fitness for his new and vast responsibilities. He himself was 
probably the only man in the nation who never for a moment 
lacked or lost that very unlimited confidence : and there was 
both good and evil in that trait of his character. 

Congress assembled in a perplexed and captious frame of 
mind. Almost every member was filled to the hps with ut- 
tered, or unuttered and unutterable, criticisms upon the policy 
of the Administration and the management of the war. A 
steady stream of Senators and Eeprescntatives poured into and 
out of Mr. Lincoln's ofiice at the Wliite House, and their 
recommendations of their constituents for appointments and 
promotions were accompanied by statements, more or less 
frank and positive, of their individual views upon the ques- 
tions of the day. It is very interesting, now, to discover how 
unvar;)nng is the testimony borne by all these intelligent and 
patriotic men to the kindly and considerate reception they met 
with at the hands of the President. This, too, even when the 
strength of their convictions or the warmth of their tempers 
gave their language the tone aiid form of severe censure. He 
could afford to take it from such men, and to present, in return 
his own understanding of the matter. So it came to pass, be- 
fore long, that his Congressional censors became bound to him 
by near ties of mutual understanding and respect. A sort of 
family feeling grew in the hearts of many, unconsciously re- 
garding themselves as watching the control of the common 
household by a man who oddly combined the functions of a 
father and an elder brother. As for the people generally, they 
had become well accustomed to talking, half affectionately, about 



360 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

" Father Abraliam ;" but there were not lacking some statesmen 
who seemed to look upon him rather as somehow a sort of 
senior partner and business manager of a firm in which they 
were at least "junior" partners and entitled to a voice in the 
direction of all its affairs. 

Mr. Lincoln did not look upon Congress itself as, in any 
manner or sense, a " junior partner," and these perpetual con- 
sultations with its individual members enabled him to explain 
to that body both his past conduct and his future plans quite 
satisfactorily. The net result was that laws were passed to 
cover the one and provide for the other, and the proposers of 
the specific " bills" required for the objects attained continued 
to their dying days under the impression that the legislation 
originated with them and not with Mr. Lincoln. This had 
been the rule from the beginning, and illustrates notably his 
infallible prescience of the popular will and of its approval or 
disapproval of any supposable course of action. There was 
nothing mysterious or magical in this faculty. It is not even 
difficult to discern its source and the methods of its opera- 
tion. 

Any purpose which any man may put in form, or any act to 
which he may give his free assent, must be, to a greater or 
less extent, an expression of his " will." The will of any pian 
is the resultant of the emotions of what we describe as his 
heart, guided, although under many interferences, by whatever 
he may have of reason. If, therefore, Mr. Lincoln had any 
sufficient gauge or measure of the emotions of the men and 
women upon whose united wills his power depended, he could 
then trace with ease the average results of their reasoning pro- 



That he continually did this very thing is a matter of re- 
cord, and has been commented upon as a marvel ; but it was 
nothing of the kind. He possessed an unerring "gauge" in 
the sea-like depth and breadth and power of his own emotional 
nature, adjusted as it was to the solemn and mournful earnest- 



A DARK WINTER. 361 

ness of those days of trial. He suffered ^th all, and more tlian 
each ; and he could therefore understand all and be sure how 
far the popular heart and will would go with him and sustain 
him in the exercise of power, at any time or in any direction. 
He accepted, as frankly and unselfishly as it was offered, the 
growing reverence and love of multitudes. It was to him per- 
fectly natural that they should feel as he did, and should most 
humanly expect him to feel as they did. So he could talk 
with women about their sons, and not be at all ashamed to weep 
a little with them when he could not altogether restrain him- 
self. The tears welled up more and more easily as time went 
by, and yet they did not often get up further than into the 
softening tones of his voice or the ever-deepening sadness of 
his eyes. 

Corresponding processes of unformulated interior thought 
enabled the President to gauge with accuracy the growing 
bitterness of the " opposition" leaders. He had little time to 
spend in reading their printed calumnies and vituperations, or 
even in hearing the reports of them brought him by his friends. 
Every now and then his angry assailants forced their views 
upon him, in one form or another. His mails were fairly 
overflowing with wrathful communications which he never 
saw ; but now and then his eye and ear were gained through 
other channels. 

A representative man of the opposition to the Administra- 
tion, and peculiariy of that wing of it which had openly sym- 
pathized witli the Ilebellion, was Mr. Fernando Wood, of Xew 
York. This was the man who, when mayor of that city, at 
the outbreak of secession, had pubhcly advised that the muni- 
cipality should set up for itself as a " free city," so severing its 
connection with abolitionism and retaining its commercial re- 
lations with the cotton-producing areas of the South. In the 
latter part of 1862 he addressed to Mr. Lincoln a letter, in 
which he set forth that he was trustworthily advised that the 
Southern States would send representatives to the next Con- 



362 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

gress, provided that a full and general amnesty should permit 
tliem to do so. 

The trap was neither so well set nor so well baited as it 
seemed to be, and Mr. Lincoln was not dra'vvn into any blunder. 
He quietly replied, on the 12th of December, the day before 
the battle of Fredericksburg, and while he was obviously not 
superintending, by telegraph or otherwise, the jDrecise move- 
ments of the Army. He paid but moderate attention to any 
part of Mr. Wood's letter, except that which declared his 
2"Ma5^-diplomatic position and authority. Of this, he said : 
" I strongly suspect your information will prove to be ground- 
less ; nevertheless I thank you for communicating it to me. 
Understanding the phrase in the paragraph above quoted 
[from Mr. Wood's letter], " the Southern States will send repre- 
sentatives to the next Congress,' to be substantially the same 
as that ' the people of the Southern States would cease resist- 
ance, and would re-inaugurate, submit to, and maintain, the 
national authority, within the limits of such States ; under the 
Constitution of the United States,' I say that in such case the 
war would cease on the part of the United States ; and if, 
within a reasonable time, a full and general amnesty were 
necessary to such an end, it would not be withheld." 

Mr, Wood strove hard to carry the matter further, and to 
obtain some kind of authority from the Administration for 
acting as a go-between and proslavery-Democratic angel of 
peace ; but Mr. Lincoln could not be induced to trust him with 
the honor of the nation in such a delicate matter. Had he 
done so, neither the rebels in arms, nor the Union armies, 
nor the people of the South, nor any part of the people of the 
]^orth, nor any foreign power on earth, would have failed to 
conclude and say : " The disasters have done their work. His 
courage has failed him. He is suing for peace. He has even 
employed a well-known enemy as an ambassador." 

It is true that there was always a large " peace element" at 
the South ; but at no time was it in even momentary power, 



A BARK WINTER. 363 

and Mr. Lincoln was only too well advised of the increasing 
rigidity of the military despotism exercised by the Davis gov- 
ernment at Eichmond. He was now watching it with all the 
greater sohcitude for the reason that he foresaw a necessity for 
tightening the pressure of the governmental machinery under 
his own hands. 

The disloyal elements in the free States, especially of the 
populations nearest the army lines, had for some time been 
taking on a form of which the general pubhc knew but little. 
Under several names, secret affiliations of "orders," and 
lodges and memberships, honeycombed the whole country, 
in communication with corresponding organizations at the 
South. 

To counteract these agencies in some measure, as well as to 
afford an effective framework to the political forces which 
were sustaining the Administration and the armies in the field, 
Mr. Lincoln had silently favored the creation of what was soon 
known as " The Union League." Secret associations of Union 
men, both white and black, already existed at the South ; but 
no one of these had succeeded in becoming general. The 
black men are supposed to have attained a common and general 
method of mutual recognition and confidence, much more 
nearly than had the whites. Even as to the former, however, 
and surely as to the latter, the more effective " Union secret 
societies" of the South were geographically restricted and local- 
ized. It was needful that those of the Xorth should be united 
under one organization, and that the centre of its control should 
be at the seat of government. 

In the summer of 1862 the nucleus of the League was 
formed, at Washington, by the selection, rather than the elec- 
tion, of a " Grand Council " of twelve members. By this 
committee of control agents were sent out in every direction 
and with great rapidity. Local " councils" were organized in 
every city and town and village of the North. The most 
complete political machine ever known took form in the very 



364 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

heat and pressure of the fall elections, and spread its ramifica- 
tions further and deeper through all the winter months. 

It was not easy for any critic to say that Mr. Lincoln had 
anything to do with it ; but there were those who remarked 
upon the suspicious fact that the Grand Council was made up 
of his personal friends and official subordinates, even to the 
extent that one of his private secretaries was Grand Corre- 
sponding Secretary of the entire League. 

In this way, and otherwise, every available measure was 
taken to organize the patriotism of the nation and to maintain 
its activity. But the President was learning yet another lesson 
from the Confederacy. The Southern leaders, almost from 
the beginning, had made the burden of their pitiless exactions 
fall most heavily upon the parts of their populations which 
they believed to be least in sympathy with them. The 
I^ational Government had touched its disaffected citizens only 
through the equal bearing of taxes payable in money. The 
awful tax which was payable in human flesh and blood had 
been borne by the patriots only, of whatever poKtical name or 
party affiliation. 

The men who loved their country most unselfishly were in 
the army to so great an extent that the consequences were al- 
ready dangerously manifested at the polls. Should the process 
go on uncorrected, it might yet affect the balance of power in 
State governments and in Congress. There were large districts 
in which the upholders of the government were weak, not only 
from numerical depletion, but because their best and ablest 
leaders were in the field with their constituents. Day by day 
their enemies grew more annoying and defiant. The Union 
League was a strong arm, indeed ; but the situation demanded 
another weapon, and Mr. Lincoln had planned, and now laid 
before Congress, a new and strenuously energetic " policy." 



EXECUTION. 365 



CHAPTEK XLY. 

EXECUTION. 

Efforts for Compensation to Owners of Slaves— Dreams of Colonization— 
The Future of the African in America— The Final Proclamation— The 
Slave-Owner a Southern Sympathizer. 

When Congress assembled in December, 1862, the issuing 
of the final Proclamation of Emancipation on the approaching 
ISTew- Year's Day was an already assm-ed result. 

Its future effect, so far as the nominally seceded States were 
concerned, would depend much upon the success of current 
military operations. The people, however, of the border slave- 
States, occupied in part or in whole by Union armies, were 
rapidly becoming aware that the " peculiar institution," among 
themselves, had received its death-blow. All discontent was 
deepened and all loyal sentiment was weakened in the minds 
of the slave-owners of Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, Kentucky, 
and West Virginia, and all in other States that sympathized 
with them and respected the Constitutional legality of their 
human property. By no fault of their own they were losing 
that which had come to them in strict accordance with the 
laws of their States and country, and these they were still 
obepng. They had vested rights which even the hand of 
revolution and reformation was bound to respect as far as 
possible. It was true that the proclamation did not include 
them in its sweeping blow, but there now remained no effective 
or operative power to keep in bondage any slave, anywhere, who 
should make an effort for freedom. It was a sense of justice, 
therefore, quite as much as policy, which led Mr. Lincohi to 



366 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

urge upon Congress tlie adoption of a system of compensated 
emancipation for these areas and for the reimbursement of 
loyal owners of the prices of slaves set free by the operations 
of the war. Even at the North such legislation was regarded, 
very generally, as both wise and just. But the measures pro- 
posed were permitted to die. 

From an early day, as a follower of Henry Clay, Mr. Lin- 
coln had vaguely entertained the ideas of that statesman with 
reference to the colonization of the colored population. So 
long as the mass of it seemed to be doomed to perpetual servi- 
tude, the yearly shipment of a few hundreds, or even many 
thousands, to any other part of the world was little more than 
a philanthropic experiment, with but moderate possibilities of 
good or evil. !Now, however, in the very act and hour of giv- 
ing wholesale freedom to millions of the marked race, the 
problem of their future well-being pressed with increasing 
force upon the heart and brain of the man who set them free. 
It was yet a question in his mind whether they could safely be 
intrusted with the powers and responsibilities of citizenship. 
He openly stated, even to delegations of black men standing 
before him in the Executive Mansion, his belief that the black 
and white races, living in contact, were a mutual detriment to 
each other. It would not be easy to disprove the correctness 
of such an opinion from the records of the African in America 
up to the year 1863, and it could even be fairly well defended 
from the annals of after-years. In his perplexity, at the time, 
Mr. Lincoln turned to his old dream of colonization. Fantastic 
as it was, he clung to it for a while, and until the better con- 
viction forced itself upon him that the Africans had come to 
America to stay and must be made men of, here and now. 

His message to Congress, at this session, did little more than 
set forth the difficulties he had already discovered in the way 
of his idea. It is not impossible that he learned something 
from writing and reading his own statement that the black 
man refused to go to Liberia or to Hayti, and that there seemed 



EXECUTION. 367 

to be no other patcli of the earth's surface Tipon which he could 
be securely landed. 

Less than two years later, still in the same spirit of thought- 
ful care for the welfare of the freed black men, he was ready 
to say, and said, to a personal friend whom he had appointed to 
an important civil post in one of the seceded States which was 
first to be reconstructed : " I am glad you are so strongly in 
favor of giving the colored men the ballot. Do all you can to 
have it done now, I urge you to push the matter. Once the 
war is over, the ballot will soon be about all the j^rotection 
they will have. We must fix it so they can protect themselves. 
They must have it now, and then it can't be taken away from 
them." 

That was in September, 1864 ; but he could not have said as 
much in the winter of 1862-3, even if the belief and purpose 
had then existed in his mind and will. Emancipation itself, 
by the act of a " military despotism," was about as heavy a 
burden as the poKtical fortimes of the Administration were 
just then al)le to carry. 

It was staggering a little under its accumulated load, for this 
included tlie entire military and chplomatic situation ; the bat- 
tles in Virginia ; the bad look of the recent fall elections ; the 
necessity of increasing taxes ; the reorganization of the national 
finances ; and the imperative need for more men to be expended 
as soldiers. 

On the first of January, 1863, according to his covenant in 
September, the President issued the final Proclamation of 
Emancipation, as follows : 

" Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a 
proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, 
containing, among other things, the following, to wit : 

" ' That on the first day of Jaimary, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as 
slaves in any State, or designated part of a State, the people 



368 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ■ 

whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, 
shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free ; and the Execu- 
tive Government of the United States, including the military 
and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the 
freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress 
such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for 
their actual freedom. 

" ' That the Executive will, on the first day of January afore- 
said, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, 
if any, in which the people thereof resjtectively shall then be 
in rebellion against the United States ; and the fact that any 
State or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith 
represented in the Congress of the United States, by members 
chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified 
voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the ab- 
sence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive 
evidence that such State, and the peoj^le thereof, are not then 
in rebellion against the United States.' 

" ]^ow, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the United States in 
time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and gov- 
ernment of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war 
measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of 
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, 
publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days 
from the day first above mentioned, order and designate, as the 
States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respect- 
ively are this day in rebellion against the United States, the 
following, to wit : 

" Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Ber- 
nard, Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, 
Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Marci, 
St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), 



EXECUTION. 369 

Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Soutli Carolina, [N'ortli 
Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eiglit counties desig- 
nated as West Virginia, and also the comities of Berkelj, Ac- 
comac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, 
and Korfolk, including the cities of Xorfolk and Portsmouth), 
and which excepted parts are left precisely as if this proclama- 
tion were not issued. 

" And, by virtue of the power and for the purjDoses afore- 
said, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves 
^dthin said designated States and parts of States are, and 
henceforward shall be, free ; and that the Executive Govern- 
ment of the United States, including the military and naval 
authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of 
said persons. 

" And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be 
free, to abstain from all \aolence, unless in necessary seK-de- 
f ense ; and I recommend to them that in all cases, when al- 
lowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 

" And I further declare and make known that such persons 
of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of 
the United States, to garrison forts, positions, and other places, 
and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

" And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, 
warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I in- 
voke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious 
favor of Almighty God. 

" In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

" Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, 
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty- 
seventh, 

ABKAHAil LmCOLN. 

" By the President : 

"William H. Sewaed, Secretary of State." 



370 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

The last door of possible compromise witli Slavery was slrnt 
and bolted firmly. All men knew that the institution conld 
not be maintained in a few detached States and parts of States. 
Legislation might or might not provide remedies for these, but 
the President had done his whole duty by them. Especially is 
this true in view of the consideration, which so largely affected 
the course of Congress, that the " loyal " population of the dis- 
tricts in question consisted mainly of those who had no slaves 
to lose. There were exceptions, many and honorable ; but, as 
a general rule, wherever one found a slaveholder, in those days, 
he found a person whose heart, if not his open deeds, were 
with the Southern Confederacy. 



DARK DATS. 371 



CHAPTEE XLYI. 

DAEK DATS. 

A Tax Payable in Men— The New Financial System— The States and the 
Nation — Reconstruction Begiin — A Flood of Calumny — Freedom of 
Speech and of the Press — A Sarcastic Present to the Confederacy — 
Opposition Taking Form at the North. 

The results of the fall elections had been sufficiently un- 
favorable to warn so experienced and shrewd a political man- 
ager as Mr. Lincoln. It was manifestly needful that the North 
should be reorganized for war purposes as completely as any 
army at the end of an exhausting campaign. He had already 
prepared for the work, and a host of busy and eager hands 
were co-operating with him. The Union League was spread- 
ing fast and wide. It had already accomplished excellent re- 
sults, and promised still better things in the future. The sus- 
pension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus had given a stem and 
ominous suggestion to the more noisy malcontents ; but a meas- 
ure was now preparing which was to fall with terrific force 
upon them and their supporters. 

No other request made by Mr. Lincoln of Congress for any 
legislation at any time was ever met with so intense and bitter 
a partisan opposition as that which was overcome in the passage 
of the " Draft Act." By this law the entire " militia" of the 
country, up to that time in the several control of the States as 
such, was placed in the hands of the Federal Government, as a 
general fund of fighting humanity. It was to be enrolled 
under rigid provisions that swept in the whole population sup- 
posed to be capable of carrying arms. It was to be drawn 
u^on, pro rata, at the will of the Executive, subject only to the 



372 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

forms prescribed by the law, and witbouT; any reference what- 
ever to the political opinions of the human beings drawn or to 
their readiness to die for their country. Those who were 
thoroughly willing and ready were so nearly all in the field, at 
that date, that the " draft" was sure to draw upon the luke- 
warm, the timid, the unwilling, the men bound by home ties 
and business cares ; and the law contained no clause exempting 
even the bitterest enemy of the Administration or the most 
profound admirer of human slavery and of peace-at-any-price. 

That such a law, enforced in such a manner, would work 
great hardships in multitudes of cases was not to be denied, 
although the Act had been carefully framed to provide for 
these as well as might be. The power placed in the hands of 
the President was enormous, but, in order to make it effective, 
sundry other measures were necessary, of an entirely different 
character. 

During Mr. Lincoln's long experience in the Illinois Legis- 
lature, and as a member of the " Long E'ine" in that body and 
an ambitious imitator of De Witt Clinton, he had been made 
to pass a laborious apprenticeship and course of study in all 
matters of State debt, E'ational debt, banks both State and Na- 
tional; bank-notes, bankruptcies, credit and losses of credit. 
He was well trained and prepared to join with the Secretary 
of the Treasury, Mr. Chase, in devising the ways and means 
for revolutionizing the finances of the country. 

They were sadly in need of a most sweeping revolution ; and 
it came. The long Congressional debates could have but one 
termination so far as the gross amounts of money to be raised 
were concerned, and the sums tendered to the Administration 
were imposingly colossal. Nine hundred millions of six-per- 
cent-interest bonds were authorized to be printed and sold — to 
somebody. Four hundred millions of Treasury notes bearing 
interest were authorized to be printed and used as money. 
One hundred and fifty miUions of Treasury notes without in- 
terest were also authorized ; and there is a curious suggestion 



DABK DAYS. 373 

of the politician rather than the banker in the simultaneous 
offering of the two kinds of circulating medium side by side. 
The first kind remained in circulation until it had earned a few 
cents' worth of interest, and then it did not circulate any more. 
Still it helped pay contractors and soldiers, and that was the 
main thing in those days. 

Mr. Lincoln's favorite, of all the financial schemes pushed to 
conclusion by this Congress, was the National-Bank Act. He 
advocated it in his message to Congress and in private conver- 
sations with his friends. It met so strong an opposition on the 
floors of House and Senate, from the friends of the existing 
State-bank systems and from what yet remained of the old- 
time enmity to a National Bank of any kind, that its fate 
seemed more than doubtful for a time. Its possible failure 
was regarded by Mr. Lincoln as a greater disaster than a defeat 
of the Union arms in the field. At the same time a growing 
jealousy of Executive interference was strong in either House, 
and there were limits beyond which even Mr. Lincoln could 
not safely venture. He did venture to the very verge, never- 
theless, and the narrow margin of a majority by which the Act 
was finally passed was obtained so directly by his personal 
efforts, unobtrusively as these were made, that the National- 
Bank system owes to him individually its existence and its use- 
fulness. 

This done, a secure market was obtained for a vast mass of 
the authorized " bonds," and it was not long before every paper 
dollar in the pocket of every man throughout the country 
bound him to sustain the credit and solvency of the National 
Government. The base upon which the Administration stood 
was suddenly and enormously widened. 

Through the entire course of Mr. Lincoln's public acts and 
utterances, from a time long before the war, can be clearly 
traced his personal conviction, slowly growing into definite 
form and ripeness, that tlie nation as a whole, and the now 
seceded States in particular, required an intelligent rebuilding. 



374 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

At this day, looking back, the most shallow student of political 
history has little difficulty in pointing out the manifest differ- 
ences between the organism now known as " The United 
States" and the loose, vague, unhooped, uncemented structure 
which down to the year 1860 bore the same title upon all 
maps of the world. 

Something analogous to pulling down preceded rebuilding, 
even at the !North. Here, however, the work of renewal had 
proceeded rapidly. The practical relations of State govern- 
ments to the central authority had been discovered or created 
and were daily becoming better and better defined, through 
processes so sharp and searching that their results were likely 
to be permanent and unquestionable. The several conditions 
of the border slave-States had been even more entirely revolu- 
tionized, and the legislation procured by Mr. Lincoln of this 
Congress set the seal of perpetuity upon their renewed exist- 
ence. During this session of it, moreover, the first wedge was 
driven home into the seemingly solid mass of the Confederacy, 
and no power could afterwards withdraw it. The old State of 
Virginia was permanently divided by the admission to the 
Union, as an independent State, of what is now West Virginia. 
Two representatives were also seated in the House from the 
occupied districts of Louisiana. The Confederate authorities 
were again duly notified of the fundamental principle upon 
which the repression of the Eebellion was to be carried on : 
that every Congressional district securely redeemed from their 
grasp was to return at once, if it would, to the performance of 
its functions as a part of the national body, and that the Gov- 
ernment knew nothing of " States" as members of a foreign 
confederacy. It acknowledged the existence of a sedition, a 
riot, a conspiracy, a powerful organization of armed disturbers 
of the peace of the Commonwealth, but it recognized nothing 
more respectable. 

There was no other political subject in which Mr. Lincoln 
took a more active interest, from first to last, than he did in 



DAEK DAYS. 375 

that of " reconstruction." There were many, at a later day, 
who accused him of even undue haste in his eagerness to obtain 
the restoration of local civil governments in every part of the 
territory conquered. 

The natural reaction of public feeling at the North had been 
plainly indicated even before the fall elections of 1862, and 
found a stronger expression in them. It was well represented 
upon the floor of Congress throughout the winter. The com- 
pletion of the act of Emancipation, on the first day of the new 
year, the entire course and character of the legislation proposed 
or accomplished, as well as the outlines and particulars of the 
military situation, were so successfully misrepresented by the 
Opposition press, and so mischievously misunderstood by large 
masses of the people, as to greatly increase the general discon- 
tent and strengthen the hands of all enemies of the Adminis- 
tration. 

The spring of 1863 found the President well supplied with 
financial resources and expedients, and with formulated powers 
for suppressing sedition and for keeping up the armies in the 
field. It must be said, however, and it was well understood by 
himself, that not at any other time, before or afterwards, was 
Mr. Lincoln's hold upon the popular confidence and affection 
60 weak, so very nearly broken. 

The strongest and most \videly read journals of his own 
political party were freely and even bitterly criticising his 
management of the war. All blows fell most heavily upon 
him, but not a member of his Cabinet escaped aspersion. His 
very family was attacked, in public and in private, by the most 
vile and cowardly calumny. Not a few bitter tongues roundly 
asserted that Mrs. Lincoln herself was in constant correspond- 
ence, as a spy, with the chiefs of the Eebellion. Through her 
they obtained the secrets of the Cabinet and the plans of gen- 
erals in the field. The insanity of the accusation does not seem 
to have been considered. It was of no avail that she was as 
ignorant of Cabinet matters as if she had been in Maine, and 



376 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

that she did not see enough of her husband to ask his over- 
weary brain a question of the war. It was equally unimi3or- 
tant, though strictly true, that she refused to open her own 
private letters, and insisted that all which came to her through 
the mails should first be opened by one of the President's private 
secretaries. The absurd and wicked slander refused to die, and 
it is barely possible that some obtuse or ignorant people accept 
it as truth to this very day. It probably annoyed her much 
more than it did Mr. Lincoln, but it serves now as a gauge of 
the bitterness and unreason with which both men and women 
assailed the President. It also indicates the bewildered state 
of mind with which they sought to account for the continued 
existence of the KebeUion. They were willing to dig for the 
secret in dark corners, and to find it in the alleged defects and 
misconducts of Union statesmen and generals rather than to 
see it in the very magnitude of the task these men and their 
leader were so heroically performing. Even patriotic and 
hopeful men seemed unable to comprehend how large a part 
of that task had already been performed, or how well ; while the 
unpatriotic and the desponding openly asserted that nothing 
had yet been done but to place the nation, bound hand and 
foot, in the grasping hands of a despotic and blundering Dic- 
tator. 

The conductors of the loyal press were not any too con- 
siderate of the effect of such words as they saw fit to pen from 
day to day. There were few who showed any intelligent ap- 
preciation of the fact that these persistent attacks upon the 
Administration were weakening the armies in the field and 
giving the most valuable aid and comfort to the public enemy. 

IS'o similar state of ajffairs was permitted to cripple the ener- 
gies of the Jefferson Davis government. No Euro2)ean autoc- 
racy holds or ever held its subject populations in the crushing 
grasp of a more rigid military system than had by this time 
been perfected at the South. The entire human life within 
the limits of the Eebelhon had been dragooned into an efficient 



DARK DATS. 377 

political unit. No careless utterances of individual opinion, 
opposed to the cause of Secession, were tolerated in public or 
in private. Such a thing as an organized and formally repre- 
sented opposition was unknown. The rope, the bullet, or the 
prison took the places of all other arguments in answering 
hostile or too-critical tongues and pens. As a consequence, 
the amount of general information in circulation among the 
people was regulated and controllable, and the Confederacy- 
was what is called "unanimous" on all questions relating to 
the war. 

The accomphshment of such an unanimity as that formed 
no part of !Mr. Lincoln's necessities or plans at any time. In 
the very darkest hours of the year 18G3, his severities were of 
a kind which endangered no life and very little liberty. Even 
atrocious license, masquerading as " liberty," was but sHghtly 
and exceptionally interfered with. 

With reference to this, it was really needful that something 
should be done, over and above notifying friendly journals not 
to print, for the information of the enemy, the plans and ar- 
maments of ships and forts and camps, and the exact disposi- 
tion and condition and intentions of the forces and commanders. 
Journalistic enterprise had led them in several instances to do 
this very thing, and its prohibition was sorely grumbled at, 
as an invasion of the freedom of the press. A more rigid 
censorship was rendered unnecessary by the general inaccuracy 
of most of these reports and a shrewd desire that the Rebel 
generals might accept them as guides. 

Something had to be done, indeed, with the more noisy 
politicians, and it was difficult to see what or how, until a curi- 
ous but suflScient " test case" was supplied by the treasonable 
folly of one weak man, with prominence enough to make him 
very useful. A member of Congress from Ohio, named Cle- 
ment L. Vallandigham, a strong pro-slavery Democrat before 
the war, had, since its outbreak, earned distinction as the most 
violent assailant of the Administration and its measures that 



378 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

could be pointed out. It was his pride to be somewhat more 
of a Rebel than if he had been in command of a Confederate 
regiment. Up to the spring of 1863, he had been permitted 
to talk as he would, for the good reason that he had no follow- 
ing worth mentioning, and that he served admirably as a per- 
petual witness that the Government did not interfere with the 
freedom of speech. He was now to serve an equally important 
use of another kind. After doing his best for the Eebellion 
all the winter, upon the floor of Congress, he went home to 
Ohio and began a series of pubhc addresses in which he sur- 
passed all previous exliibitions of partisan malice and vitupera- 
tive capacity. 

General Burnside was then in command of the Department 
of the Ohio, and his patriotism was of the most sterhng quality. 
He had issued an order setting forth that all persons found 
within the Union army lines who should commit acts for the 
benefit of the enemy would be tried as spies or as traitors, and, 
if convicted, would be put to death. 

This order plainly included such traitors as Yallandigham ; 
and he not only publicly denounced it on the stump, but 
urged the people to forcibly resist its execution. The military 
" order of arrest," which he in this manner courted and asked 
for, was issued by General Burnside as a matter of course, and 
the orator was locked up. The next day, May 5, 1863, an appli- 
cation for a writ of habeas corjms, in his case, was made to the 
United States Circuit Court. It was a fine opportunity to test 
the Constitutionality and effect of the President's suspension 
of the writ, as well as the authority of the Commander-in-Chief 
to protect the rear of his army. 

The presiding judge, himself a lifelong Democrat, politically, 
listened to a long argument from the prisoner's counsel ; but he 
sternly refused the writ, stating the law of the matter in a 
form which made his decision invaluable to the Government. 
He said : " The legality of the arrest depends upon the necessity 
for making it, and that is to be determined by the mihtary 



DAEK DAYS. 379 

commander." He added a good deal of outspoken patriotism 
and common-sense to his "law," and the subject of arbitrary 
arrests was cleared of a great part of the rabbish which had 
been heaped around it. Yallandigham was tried at once by 
court-martial, and was sentenced to be confined in some fort- 
ress. General Bumside approved the finding of the court and 
named Fort Warren as the place of punishment. But Mr. 
Lincoln was not disposed to throw away his opportune " ex- 
ample" in that manner. He could express, through him, his 
hearty contempt for the class of demagogues Yallandigham so 
perfectly represented. A broad smile swept across the face of 
the North, and a subdued chuckle went through the people 
and the army and was heard even at the South, when the sen- 
tence of the culprit was read in the newspapers. 

The President modified the imprisonment in Fort AYarren 
to an imprisonment within the Rebel lines, and sent the convict 
down South, with a warning not to return until after the war. 

There was a touch of humor in it, but it was the most biting 
sarcasm ever penned by Abraham Lincoln. "Well might the 
South grumble that it was no sort of " Botany Bay," and had 
no use for tliat kind of immigration. The sentence worked a 
world of good at the North. A host of mere talking men felt 
that the blow was aimed at them. Quarters in Federal prisons 
could be given to but few. From such places there might be 
means of possible escape. There would, at least, be food and 
raiment there, and safe shelter ; but who could guess what hor- 
rors might await a poor Northern traitor " beyond the array 
lines" ? The people of the South, themselves, were suspected 
of having strong notions, here and there, of a man's duty to 
" go with his State, side with his section, and stand by his own 
])eople," and Southern hospitality might curl its haughty lip a 
little at the Northern renegade sent down to help eat the 
scanty rations of its soldiery. 

Yallandigham got around into Ohio again, before the end of 
the war : but he had served all the uses that could be made of 



380 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

him, and no further notoriety was forced upon him by the 
Government. Even after his expulsion, however, his remarka- 
ble usefulness continued for a season. His case and conviction, 
and the shiver of dread caused thereby to all similar offenders, 
drew the more virulent elements of the Opposition together, 
forced them to take public action, and so enabled Mr. Lincoln 
to answer them before the people, as he could not otherwise 
have done. Public meetings were at once held, in the larger 
cities, for general purposes of denunciation of the " Lincoln 
despotism." These meetings answered well as safety-valves, 
and also to convince the nation that there was really no inter- 
ference with freedom of speech. Great men and small men, 
alike, expressed themselves from these platforms very much 
as the transported Ohio scapegoat had expressed himself from 
his platforms, and no hand of Executive tyranny was laid upon 
them. The meetings were largely and noisily attended, and 
their managers, without any such intention, afforded Mr. Lin- 
coln the means of measuring, with fair accuracy, the extent, 
nature, and capacities of the disaffection. 

A month after Yallandigham had been bundled across the 
army lines and received by " his own," the Democratic State 
Convention of Ohio, representing the disloyal elements of that 
State, nominated him for Governor of the State, and his law- 
counsel for Lieutenant-Governor. They also did Mr. Lincoln 
the favor to send a delegation to him at Washington, to pre- 
sent their view of the case. 

They did very rightly. They were by no means bad men. 
Their action, at that very hour, although they knew it not, 
was a marvellous expression of their personal confidence in the 
integrity of the President. They did not know, either, how 
glad he was of the opportunity they thus gave him to tell the 
whole country, in his answer to their address : " Your attitude, 
therefore, encourages desertion, resistance to the Draft, and the 
like, because it teaches those who incline to desert and to es- 
cape the draft to believe it is your purpose to protect them." 



DARK DAYS. 381 

To the utterances of a great meeting held at Albany, New 
York, Mr. Lincoln made a more elaborate reply. It was a 
peculiarly representative assemblage, and gave him an oppor- 
tunity to explain to the whole people why he had pursued so 
lenient a policy from the beginning, and why he had waited 
for the commission of actual crime, by any and every indi- 
vidual, before employing the strong hand of the law. It also 
enabled him to ask, of both friends and foes, the practical 
question : 

" Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy who deserts, 
while I must not totich a hair of the wily agitator who induces 
him to desert ? I think that, in such a case, to silence the agi- 
tator and save the boy is not only constitutional, but withal a 
great mercy." 

There was wind enough stirring to blow away a great deal 
of unwholesome fog. By the time all the speeches had been 
made and all the editorials had been printed, the people had 
read and digested the President's replies. They had also 
chuckled grimly over " Yallandigham in Dixie," and had en- 
joyed tlie panicky dismay of the demagogues. The beneficial 
effect was sure and rapid, and a great revulsion of popular 
feeling set strongly in. 

The dark days were by no means shortened. There was 
more trouble to come. Nevertheless, the President discerned 
that he could safely employ the exceptional powers placed in 
his hands, and that all the people would sustain him. The 
great mihtary events of the year, in due season, completed the 
work so well begun, and, when her next State election took 
place, Ohio declared, by the largest majority in her pohtical 
history, that she preferred a patriot for her governor and had, 
like Mr. Lincoln, no further use for the kind of men repre- 
sented by YaUandigham. 



382 ABRAHAM LINCOLK 



CHAPTER XLYII. 

NIGHT. 

Preparing for a Great Struggle — Popular Discontent — Murmurs of Sedi- 
tion — European Hostilities — Cbancellorsville — Bitter Hours for the 
President — Darkness at the South — Statesmen under a Hallucination — 
The Second Invasion of the North — Hooker Succeeded by Meade. 

Me. Lestcoln did not retain tlie external equanimity of his 
earlier days under the galling pressure of the burdens laid upon 
him in 1863. The goading irritations were too many, and they 
gave him no rest whatever. The path he was forced to walk 
in was rugged with lacerating difficulties. To say that he now 
and then gave way to short-lived fits of petulance is but to 
admit that he was human. He was keenly conscious of every 
deficiency, in himself or in his human and other means for 
performing his vast undertaking, and he could not but worry 
when things went wrong. More than enough did go wrong, and 
the few admissions of harassed weariness which escaped him do 
not deserve especial record. 

It was well understood, through many channels of informa- 
tion, that the Confederacy was now preparing to put forth its 
full and uttermost strength : and this was more than the North 
would or could be induced to do. There was, indeed, a sort 
of prophetic hope in the obvious fact that such an exhaustive 
effort could never be made more than once by the South ; but 
the certainty that it was coming filled the outlook for the mili- 
tary year with promises of bloodshed, and these were speedily 
and terril^ly fulfilled. Mr. Lincoln read all these signs and 
promises, and knew their meaning perfectly. He saw and he 
felt that a large proportion of the men he was drawing into the 



NIGHT. 383 

army from their homes and workshops ^ere to he sent, by his 
orders, to certain and sudden death ; and he was not the man 
to put from him carelessly any of the solemn questions asked 
of him by such a responsibility. 

The cares heaped upon the President by the demands and 
perils of the military situation were made heavier by the aspect 
of affairs in several of the loyal States, The murmurs of the 
opponents of the Draft grew louder daily, as the machinery for 
its enforcement assumed forms which men could see. It was 
something new and strange and horrible, even to the minds of 
many who were genuinely patriotic ; for it was a sort of re- 
morseless and unavoidable " direct tax" which could only be 
paid, in person or by substitute, with the bodies of Hving men. 

There were yet other omens of possible disaster. More em- 
phatic than ever came continual assurances from abroad, 
official, unofficial, and journalistic, that the sympathies of the 
great commercial powers and controlling aristocracies of Europe 
were strongly with the Confederacy. The sympathies of the 
French Imperial Government assumed their most offensive 
form in the disastrous history of its Mexican ex-pedition, and 
the foregone failure of this was a significant prophecy of the 
subsequent events by means of which the French people re- 
gained self-government. Popular good-will in France for the 
American Republic was without any means for making itself 
heard or felt in the year 1863. 

The " Southern" sympathies of that part of the English na- 
tion affected by such leanings were made to be very deeply 
felt by the American people. "We were assailed by them, and 
in the most hurtful modes, by land and sea. On the sea, by 
the continuous and often successful efforts of British blockade- 
runners to enter or leave the Southern ports, and by the ravages 
of British cruisers, like the Alabama, under the Confederate 
flag; on the land, by the presence, on every battle-field, of 
British arms and ammunition in rapidly increasing supply. 
That part of the English nation whose heart and hope instinc- 



384 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

tively clung to the Free ITortli and its long struggle for Free 
Labor had attained no other political power than that of suffer- 
ing patiently, in the year 1863. 

Wliatever may have been the caste feeling of a part of the 
German ruling classes, the Germans as a mass were with the 
North, They bought our national " bonds" liberally, at war- 
time prices, and in due season they reaped a golden harvest of 
rich profits thereby. 

Alone among the great powers of Europe, Russia was firmly 
bound to America by the ties of a friendship which bore a 
strict relation to her undying hatred of France and England. 
Her vivid memories of the Crimean War were sure guaranties 
of her active alliance, in case her old enemies should offer her 
an opportunity to obtain satisfaction for Sevastopol. Her 
position aided largely in checking any too aggressive an expres- 
sion of the now half -triumphant malice of her rivals who mistak- 
enly regarded themselves as interested in our political division 
and destruction. 

The State Department was in good hands, and Mr. Seward 
could safely be intrusted with all diplomatic affairs. The con- 
dition and promise of the revenue and the Treasury seemed 
all that could be reasonably expected. The Navy grew more 
and more efficient, at sea and on the Western rivers. Secretary 
Stanton was accomphshing marvels of genius and of sleepless 
toil in the War Office, burning out in faithful services the fiery 
energy which led Mr. Lincoln to select him for that tremendous 
duty. 

Congress adjourned and its membership went home. The 
very air grew hot and dense ^vith expectations of a " battle- 
summer." The army was in fine condition. East and West. 
The forces on the line of the Potomac were necessarily some- 
what scattered, but they outnumbered, two to one, the forces 
opposed to them under Lee. 

The Army of the Potomac was still, to the perceptions of a 
large majority of the people, the representative army, by the 



NIOHT. 385 

successes or failures of which they measured the tides of the 
war. It was under the command of General Hooker ; and 
the exact condition of the President's mind in relation to this 
officer cannot be better expressed than by the following letter, 
on file in the "War Department : 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, D. C, January 26, 1863. 

Major-General Hooker. 

General : I have placed you at the head of the Army of 
the Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what appear 
to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you 
to know that there are some things in regard to which I am 
not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and 
skillful soldier, which, of course, I hke. I also believe you do 
not mix politics ^vith your profession, in which you are right. 
You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not an 
indispensable, quality. You are ambitious, which, within rea- 
sonable bounds;, does good rather than harm. But I think that 
during General Burnside's command of the army you have 
taken counsel of your ambitions, and thwarted him as much as 
you could, in which you did a great wrong both to the country 
and a most meritorious and honorable brother-officer. I have 
heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying 
that both the Army and the Government needed a dictator. Of 
course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given 
you a command. Only those generals who gain success can 
set up as dictators. "What I ask of you is military success, and 
I will risk the dictatorship. The Government will support you 
to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than 
it has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that 
the spirit you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticising 
their commander and withholding confidence from him, will 
now turn upon you. I shall assist you, as far as I can, to put 
it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were ahve again, 



386 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

could get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails 
in it. 

And now, beware of rashness ! Beware of rashness ! But 
with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us 
victories. Yours very truly, 

A. LmcoLN. 

General Hooker had succeeded in winning the good-will and 
confidence of his men, but that was all he was destined to win. 
Leaving to professional mihtary critics all discussion of the 
exact strategic methods employed or omitted, it is enough to 
state the facts as follows : 

During the first week in May, 1863, General Hooker so 
handled several of his best army corps, in what is known as the 
Battle of Chancellorsville, that the net result to them was a 
severe defeat. The obstinacy of the fighting and the generally 
good conduct of the forces engaged appears from the ofiicial 
statements of losses on both sides. The Confederate com- 
mander admits a total loss of 13,019, and the Union general of 
17,19T, and, with these, of the battle-ground. 

Mr. Lincoln might well walk the floor of his room, late into 
the night, after receiving the news of this disaster. One of his 
private secretaries was detained by unusual pressure of clerical 
work in an adjoining room. Midnight came ; one o'clock ; two 
o'clock ; and when, a half -hour later, the young man paused at 
the head of the stairs, before creeping silently out to go to his 
own residence, the last sounds he heard were the slow and heavy 
footfalls of the all but heart-broken ruler. So many more 
fathers and mothers were looking towards him, reproachfully, 
between their sobs for their sons. So many more widows were 
mourning for their husbands and wondering whether their 
heartache need have come to them if Mr. Lincoln had done, or 
had not done, something, — they knew not what. He knew 
that the news would stimulate the hatred in Europe and 
strengthen all the disaffection at the North. Even loyal 



NIGHT. 387 

enthusiasts would be deterred from enlisting. The Draft 
would be denounced more bitterly than ever, as a means of 
dragging helpless and unwilling men into a shambles of useless 
butchery. 

Other men, in distant corners of the country, could not under- 
stand, as did the President, that such a victory as that of Chan- 
cellorsville, won at so great a cost to the South, was, in its true 
and final effect, a damaging blow to the Southern cause. They 
overlooked the simple arithmetic of the matter and refused to 
see how hardly General Lee could spare the men he had lost, 
and that a very few such fights would leave the Eebelhon ^vith- 
out an army. If General Lee's own records are to be trusted, 
nearly a fourth part of his movable strength was temporarily 
or pei-manently destroyed, while the Union loss, relatively, was 
but fifteen per cent, instead of twenty-five. One bitter com- 
plaint made against General Hooker, indeed, was that he had 
not employed his men and had kept 37,000 of them out of the 
fight although they were near enough to have turned the defeat 
into a victory for him had he but set them free. With excel- 
lent show of reason could Mr. Lincoln urge, as he speedily did, 
that another battle should be sought and fought before the 
enemy should be given time to recuperate. He urged in vain. 
There was a man then in training for him, in the "West, who had 
learned that precisg49fisonj)f4he,.atera_4nt^^ but 

Grant had not arrived, in 1863, and it seemed impossible for the 
President to enforce his conviction of the tnith upon the mind 
of any commander he had as yet discovered. All the apparent 
evils of the defeat were therefore pennitted to remain, and 
Secretary Stanton himself is reported to have declared that 
the darkest hour of the whole war was just after Chancellors- 
ville. 

The dark days of the year 1863 were not dark for the ISTorth 
alone. There was trouble in the councils of the Confederacy 
also ; and with it came at times a sickening consciousness of 
failing strength. The course of military events had not by any 



388 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

means been uniformly favorable to the South. After a series 
of bloody engagements, one of their best armies was cooped up in 
Yicksburg by General Grant, and there seemed to be but small 
hope that his hold upon it could be broken. Throughout the 
"West the Union lines were steadily drifting Southerly. Not a 
man could the Rebellion spare to its Western generals from its 
resources in the East, for here every effort was making to re- 
enforce General Lee. Unbounded confidence was reposed in 
him, but it was becoming painfully evident that he must do 
something much more productive of results than the costly 
winning of even such victories as that of Chancellorsville. 

General Hooker was still in command of the Army of the 
Potomac, and the opposing forces watched each other zealous- 
ly. A fierce battle of mutual interrogation as to position and 
purposes was fought at Brandy Station in the second week of 
June, but no general engagement was obtained, for various good 
reasons. The chief of these was, probably, that General Lee 
did not desire one. He was making all things ready for a 
second invasion of the North, and more fighting on Southern 
ground, just then, would but have wasted his war material. 

That Lee should make such a Northward movement at all 
was both a dire necessity and a fatal blunder. It is not alto- 
gether fair to place either of these upon the shoulders of so 
good a general. The great error of the Confederate statesmen 
concerning the state of public opinion and feeling, as well as 
of material prosperity, at the North, is by no means easy to 
understand when their general shrewdness and abihty are taken 
into consideration. They should have known their country 
and countrymen better than they did. The national resources 
of the North, always vastly greater than those of the South, 
had not been perceptibly impaired, and no acre of its area had 
been either devastated or rent away. As to its population, the 
out-and-out Vallandighams among them were not fighting men, 
by any means, as Mr. Lincoln contemptuously illustrated when 
he sent that person through the lines. Lee was quite welcome 



NIGHT. 389 

to them all, if lie had any use for them. They were, for the 
greater part, mere political demagogues, who talked themselves 
into disreputable notoriety, while all the good and strong men 
of their own " Democratic" party ralHed like heroes around the 
flag of their country. The demagogues had now, indeed, been 
able to take advantage of a sore-hearted and weary multitude ; 
but experienced political leaders, like Jefferson Davis and his 
counselors, should have understood, without being told, that 
the multitudes were loyal and true to their government, at the 
bottom of all their grumbling. The discontented elements at 
the iS'orth could not be handled, even in the accustomed form 
of a political party, without the name of a favorite Union gen- 
eral, McClellan, at their head. They must be able to assure 
themselves and everybody else that they wanted only a more 
vigorous and successful management of the war and, perhaps, 
a little less of Abolitionism. All Northern murmurs were 
heard by Southern political and military managers as conveyed 
to them by their spies and correspondents, or as expressed in 
wild exaggeration by " Copperhead " editors of newspapers. 
The rabid utterances of demagogues, and even the observa- 
tions of the most cultivated and ignorant foreign tourists, were 
sent South and interpreted as the sincere expressions of great 
popular constituencies. The imported riff-raff of great cities 
was carefully cross-examined, and its mouthings were studied 
and duly reported as indicating the state of mind of our entire 
foreign-born citizenship. 

It was a direct result of the hallucination thus created that 
the ineffable mistake of an invasion of the North was repeated. 
The best army of the South was sent across the fatal border 
that it might serve as a nucleus for an anticipated rising of all 
the friends of Secession according to their varieties. It was a 
splendid army of nearly ninety thousand men, and was fully 
competent for the conquest proposed, so soon -as it should be 
augmented by a few hundred thousands of Northern malcon- 
tents. It was mainly composed of trained veterans, new levies 



390 ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 

being retained for other duties, and it look forward confi- 
dently to the career of supposed victories before it. 

It was not difficult for Lee to elude any possible vigilance 
of Hooker. A rapid dash by a force thrown forward for the 
purpose cleared the Shenandoah Valley of Union troops, and 
then, through the broad highway thus opened. General Lee was 
pressing on to his mad enterprise before his purpose could be 
divined. 

This was the culminating point of the whole war. The 
Draft for men had been ordered to take place in July. Mur- 
murs of tlireatened resistance were ominously rising from 
many localities, and it was not difficult to connect the North- 
ward march of Lee with possible conspiracies, secretly or- 
ganized and prepared for co-operative action. That such con- 
spiracies existed was beyond all doubt, although their extent 
and power for evil was unknown. It was now also certain 
that Lee would be in Pennsylvania before a single army corps 
could be thrown across his path. 

The President called upon the States of ISTew York, West 
Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania for 120,000 men, for 
temporary use ; and it is interesting to note the names of these 
four States combined in such a call by him. In the excitement 
of the moment the men came fast enough, but it was not so 
easy to arm and equip and make a practical use of them. In 
like manner, at the same time, Mr. Jefferson Davis was calling 
out every able-bodied man or boy he could arm, to defend 
Richmond from a counter-attack the movement for which had 
been instantly ordered by Mr. Lincoln. 

General Hooker moved his forces somewhat leisurely, and 
the result of a diversity of views between him and General 
HaUeck was the offer and acceptance of his resignation and the 
appointment of General George G. Meade to the command of 
the Army of the Potomac. 

General Meade had previously commanded the Fifth Army 
Corps and was an officer of tried and acknowledged ability. 



NIGHT. ^391 

He had not attained then, nor did he afterwards establish, a 
reputation as an exceptionally great commander, but he was in 
all respects eminently capable and trustworthy, and he was less 
of an experiment than any previous chief of that army. It never 
had had less need of a great commander than at that very hour. 
The subordinate leaders of the Army of the Potomac were now 
become experienced generals, famihar with their commands 
and duties, while its veteran soldiers were a body of men that 
had but one equal on earth, and that was its old antagonist, 
the" Army of Northern Virginia, under Lee. No other large 
armies then in existence had added to theu' science and their 
drill the perfecting processes of so many hard marches and 
fights. There was a curiously high degree of mutual respect 
and of emulation between those two armies, for which each 
had many and most excellent reasons. 



392 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTER XLYIII. 

THE TURNING POINT. 

The Eve of Battle — The Surrender of Vicksburg — The Mississippi River 
set Free — The Three Days' Fight at Gettysburg — Lee's Retreat — The 
Situation Changed — The Draft Riots— The New York Mob— The 
President's Reply to the Unpatriotic Elements. 

The month of June was fast slipping away, and it began to 
look as if the gates of the North were at last open to the Con- 
federacy. By the 2-ith the main body of Lee's army was north 
of the Potomac. On the 27th two of his army corps were at 
Chambersburg, well up the Cumberland Yalley, west of the 
mountains, while a third occupied Carlisle, within striking 
distance of Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania. General 
Hooker had held his old position opposite Washington, with 
his main body, as late as the 23d ; but all doubt as to the safety 
of that city, for the time being, was now removed, and on the 
25th he began to cross the Potomac at Edward's Ferry. From 
thence he advanced to Frederick, Maryland, and halted, only 
thirty miles, as the crow flies, from the battle-field of Gettys- 
burg. Here, on the 28th, the change of commanders took 
place, and General Meade only carried out a previously ex- 
pressed purpose of his predecessor in at once moving his 
forces towards the Susquehanna. Omitting all details of mili- 
tary movements as out of place here, it is enough to say that 
on the evening of June 30 the entire Eebel army was concen- 
trating towards Gettysburg ; the Union army lay within little 
more than a good day's march, and both commanders were 
fully aware that a great and decisive battle could not be long 
delayed. 



THE TUEXIXG POIXT. 393 

What was only of a little less importance, the entire country 
•was almost equally aware and in waiting. A Eebel force pene- 
trated within sight of Harrisburg. The citizens of Philadelphia 
found themselves digging trenches and throwing up eai'thworks 
for the possible defence of that city. The Governor of Penn- 
sylvania called for 60,000 more men. A sudden and fierce 
excitement spread like wildfire throughout the ISI'orth, and a 
spasm of warlike feeling stirred the hearts of men in every 
community and neighborhood. The effect was not at all what 
the Richmond statesmen had counted upon, but it was very 
much what they should have expected. The presence of Lee 
in Pennsylvania did all that was necessary to render the Draft 
endurable and only failed of making it popular. Certain 
it is that there remained hardly a tithe of the trouble in enforc- 
ing it that there might have been but for a vague idea which 
almost every man unconsciously entertained that he could hear 
the sound of distant cannonading and possibly of drums. 

The President urged forward with all his might the army 
movement under Meade. He did not neglect the forces in 
front of Washington nor the insufticient counter-movement 
towards Eichmond. At the same time he stimulated to his 
uttermost, as his letters and dispatches to the commanding 
generals testify, the operations he was watching in the "West. 
He pushed forward with increased vigor the now almost com- 
pletely organized machinery for the enforcement of the Draft. 
The decisive hour had come, and he proved himself fully equal 
to all its demands upon him. So did the Army of the Potomac. 
So did the men in the West, under Grant. 

The first week of July, 1803, was crowned with hard-won 
triumph. The garrison of Yicksburg surrendered to General 
Grant on the -ith, and so, a few days later, did that of Port 
Hudson, further down the river. With these was also surren- 
dered the Mississippi River to its mouth. The Confederacy 
was cleft in twain, never more to be the compact and stubbornly 
resisting mass which it so long had been. In the East, on the 



394 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 

first day of the montli, at Gettysburg, the advanced corps of 
the armies under Meade and Lee began a struggle as of life 
and death. At the end of the first day's fighting the advan- 
tage was with the Confederates ; but all they had won had cost 
them dearly. All through the hot hours of July 2, and on 
into the night, the strife continued with a success so varying that 
the result still trembled in the balance. At night a council of 
war was held by Meade and his generals, and the corps com- 
manders unanimously voted to stay and fight it out. It is 
recorded of General W. S. Hancock, in particular, that when 
his opinion was called for he added to it, in strong language, 
" The Army of the Potomac has retreated too often." It is a 
sufficient comment upon the aspect of affairs that the usual 
and prudent precautions for covering the retreat of the army 
in case of further disaster were made with special care. The 
fighting on the third day began with the dawn of light ; but 
before noon its bloody tides were manifestly turning in favor 
of the Union. It became necessary for Lee to strike a desper- 
ate, decisive blow, and he prepared for one which, if it could 
have succeeded against the preparations made to receive it, 
would have changed the remaining history of the war. It was 
begun a little after 3 o'clock p.m., the best troops of the Rebel 
army, hitherto untouched and fresh, being hurled against the 
Union centre. They have been estimated at about 18,000 men, 
under General Pickett, sometimes termed the "IS^ey of the 
Confederate armies." It was a grand charge, well planned 
but for a mistaken idea as to what it was to meet, and it was 
made magnificently ; l^iit it failed in slaughter, rout, and ruin, 
and its failure terminated the Invasion of the IS'orth. The 
Eebel forces still held the positions to which they had fallen 
back, but at half past 6 o'clock p.m. they ceased firing. They 
still held their ground, unassailed, during all the next day; and 
General Meade's caution in not instantly pressing another 
general engagement has found able defenders as weU as severe 
critics among military men. 



TEE TURNING POINT. 395 

Except on the first day, the actual combatants had not been 
very unequally matched as to numbers, and then only by the 
Confederate troops being the more rapidly carried into action. 
General Meade had under him, first and last, about 82,000 men, 
not all engaged, while General Lee had about 73,500 actually 
present for service. The cavahy on either side was about 
equal in numerical strength, but the Ai-my of the Potomac was 
largely superior in field-artillery. The severity of the fighting 
is grimly illustrated by the losses, in killed, woimded, and miss- 
ing. These are ti-ustworthily reported or estimated at 23,186 
for the Army of the Potomac and 22,728 for the Army of 
Northern Virginia, a difference of 458 men in apparent favor 
of the Confederacy. 

Lee's errand in the North was over, at the end of such a fight, 
even if it were to be considered, what some of the Confederate 
leaders actually claimed, " a drawn battle." It was, indeed, 
nothmg of the kind, but a distinctly marked and definite defeat 
of Lee's army, which only escaped destruction because it was 
not instantly smitten again. 

Fresh troops were pouring forward to re-enforce Meade, and 
Mr. Lincoln urged him to assume the offensive again at once ; 
but he failed to do so. General Lee was once more permitted, 
though %vith better reason than after the Antietam battle, 
peaceably and all but unmolested to withdraw a shattered 
though still stubborn and dangerous army and to retreat into 
Virginia. 

This second invasion of the North tenninated much more 
disastrously for the Confederacy tlian did the mad march which 
ended at the Antietam. When the results of it were summed 
up and the great events on the banks of the Mississippi were 
added to them, it was discovered that the entu-e mihtary situa- 
tion had undergone a change. Both in the East and in the 
"West this change was of a nature that was necessarily perma- 
nent, and the possible future area of the war was narrower than 
before. Its tide had unmistakably turned and was ebbing 



396 ABBAHAM LINCOLN, 

Southward, however any of its waves might thenceforth 
advance or recede. 

During all the time of the change, nevertheless, and even 
after its bloody crisis was passed, serious political matters 
already referred to had demanded the thoughtful attention of 
the President. The governor, for the time being, of the great 
State of New York had taken ujDon himself to be a sort of 
official mouthpiece for the elements opposed to the enforcement 
of the Draft of men for the army. He indeed represented 
them, for by their votes he was in office. It is now impossible 
to more than guess what might have been the course of such a 
man, so upheld, if the battle of Gettysburg had ended in a 
rout of Meade's army, or if Grant, at the same time, had been 
repulsed before Yicksburg. As it was, and while yet the clouds 
of uncertainty and dread hung over the battle-fields and hid 
the coming victories, the many emissaries of the Richmond 
government, and low demagogues without any other commis- 
sion than such as their own malice gave them, worked busily 
and effectively among the more debased and ignorant popula- 
tions of ITew York and other great cities. The Draft Act 
contained an unhappy clause whereby a man could secure 
exemption through a money payment, and it was easy to 
represent this as a " rich man's exemption." This provision 
added materially to the necessarily offensive nature of the law, 
great as was its real mercy. The promoters of sedition were 
able so to use it as to touch as with caustic all the sore places 
of poverty and of class prejudice. 

Military events had now accomplished much in the way of 
checking the growth and j^reventing the pernicious effect of 
all this excitement ; but the path for mischief to come had been 
prepared in ways unperceived by Mr. Lincoln. Well as he 
knew his countrjTnen generally, he was but httle acquainted 
with the population of N"ew York City. He knew as little of 
it, in fact, as do nine tenths of its better classes at this day. 
He was not at all aware how strong, active, and well-armed a 



THE TURNING POINT 397 

" garrison" it constantly requires in time of peace. He there- 
fore could not estimate how much more numerous and efficient 
should have been its armed occupancy at such an hour of sure 
and sore emergency as that of the enforcement of the Draft 
Act. 

The time was one, for him especially, in the intense excite- 
ment of whose tremendous events almost any human oversight 
might well be pardoned ; but the precise error he committed or 
permitted was full of peril. He allowed the Xew York State 
authorities to strip the city of its organized militia in response 
to his call for temporary troops to check the advance of Lee. 
They were all sent, but there was little use made of them at 
Gettysburg. That fighting was hardly the kind of work for 
militia. 

The additional error was then committed of seeming to for- 
get their very existence, and so of not hastening their return to 
the place where they were needed as guardians of peace and 
law. It is not easy to imagine how precisely such an emergen- 
cy could occur again, but it might. 

For several generations the city of New York had received 
from Europe, in addition to all that was good and valuable in 
human immigration, a steady influx, such as it still receives, of 
the vilest elements of the worst populations of the Old World. 
The children of these people do not become Americans, and 
their very grandchildren, in a large proportion, are still alien 
in heart and soul to all that distinctively makes and consti- 
tutes Americanism. 

From these elements had come but few " volunteers" for the 
anny, and nearly as many deserters as volunteers. Upon 
them, however, the Draft was now about to lay its iron hand ; 
and the word went around among them that the mihtia were 
all gone, they had only the police to deal with, and the city 
was at their mercy. Their dull brains were slow to grasp the 
new idea, and the first day of the Draft passed very quietly. 
This, after several postponements, had been ordered by the 



398 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

"War Department at TVashington to take place on Saturday, 
the llth of July. It was to be under the purely imaginary 
protection of a few squads of the Invalid Corps ; and the Met- 
ropolitan Police were not notified, nor was any request made 
of them for assistance or even for especial vigilance. They 
had no expectation of any disturbance, and made no preparation 
whatever. It was a full week after the battle of Gettysburg, 
and every militia regiment might as well have been at home. 
The Metropolitan Police force was an admirable body of men, 
well organized, well drilled, efficient, self-reliant, and was 
officered and handled by men of uncommon courage and capa- 
city. It was strong enough, even in numbers, to meet any 
reasonable demand ; but a straia beyond all reason was about to 
be thrown upon it. 

The next day was Sunday, the 12th, and it is a noteworthy 
fact that the everywhere-present police did not discover or 
report a single indication of the coming trouble. There were 
timid people who feared something ; there were angry men 
who made many threats in the ears of sympathizers ; the mob 
was thoroughly ready for it knew not what : but Sunday passed 
very quietly. 

" The Mob." That was a thing, an existence, a feature of 
the population of the United States, of which Mr. Lincoln had 
no definite knowledge. Even his old rough neighbors, the 
" Clary's Grove Boys," were fit to wear wings in comparison 
with the wild beasts who were now about to astonish him. If 
he had any thought of possible trouble in the great city, he 
doubtless believed, with all its good citizens, that the police 
would be strong enough to prevent any general disturbance of 
the peace. So they were, and would have been had they not 
been permitted to be taken utterly by surprise. 

On Monday, the 13th, the offices for enrollment and selec- 
tion opened again, but it was only to close in haste. The Mob 
rose suddenly and grew fast, compelling accessions to its ranks 
under pain of death, by a fiercely brutal " draft act" of its own. 



TEE TURXI^sG POIXT. 399 

It rapidly discovered and assured itself of its power, and tlie 
city learned, for the first time, wliat a multitude of devilish 
natures it contained. Four davs of riot and lawlessness fol- 
lowed. There were twenty-four distinct " fires" of importance 
within twenty-four hours from the outbreak of the riot, and 
what was then the " Fire Department" was unfit to deal with 
them. Too many of its " volunteer" membership were among 
the rioters, and it was one of the things destroyed by the mob 
and those fires. 

At the first, a pretense was made by the rioters of confining 
all actual murders committed by them to colored men and 
women and children, and members of the police force. This, 
however, was soon abandoned, and any well-dressed or de- 
cently behaved man was in peril of being pointed out as " a 
Lincoln man" of some land, and of being inhumanly butch- 
ered. Stores and houses were broken into and sacked and 
fired, and the negro orphan-asylum was devilishly destroyed. 
Plunder, drunkenness, cruelty, held a sort of carnival. 

The Metropolitan Police did their duty like heroes, fighting 
magnificently, under every disadvantage. Beaten and mur- 
dered in small squads or singly, they did not lose a single fight, 
from first to last, where the odds were not more than ten to 
one against them, or where they could bring a reasonable force 
to bear. As it was, they held their assailants at bay, checked 
their ravages, prevented untellable devastation, and finally suc- 
ceeded in overpowering the Mob. Private citizens armed 
themselves and came to help, twelve hundred entering the 
police force as sworn "specials." The guns of government 
vessels in the harbor were brought to bear at several localities, 
but could not well be used. The fragmentary remainders of 
the organized militia came to the assistance of the Metropoli- 
tans at the very outset of the riot. The veterans of disbanded 
"volunteer" regiments rallied promptly at the call of their 
former commanders and did excellent service. Details of in- 
fantry and artillery from the forts in the harbor, and of ma- 



400 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

lines and sailors from the Navy Yard and from war-vessels in 
the harbor performed their duty thoroughly. Towards the 
close, full regiments arrived from the interior of the State, the 
seat of war and elsewhere, and quiet was at last restored. 

The fighting was continuous and bloody. How many of 
the Mob were actually killed and wounded before its fury was 
expended and its power broken was never officially reported. 
There were reasons for not saying too much about it at the time, 
but the count probably fell little short of fifteen hundred. 

Mr. Lincoln was bitterly but unjustly blamed for the occur- 
rence of the Draft Riot. Men saw that its apparent cause and 
opportunity came from his action as Chief Magistrate of the 
nation, and many did not look much further. They failed to 
consider that he was as ignorant as they were that the wild 
beasts of Europe were so numerous in the dens of New York 
City. 

The good uses of the whole matter were at once developed, 
and the Draft Riot was of incalculable assistance to the Ad- 
ministration. The entire country, in its amazed perusal of the 
newspaper accounts of the horror, could see the glare of the 
burning buildings and hear the brutal roar of the Mob and 
the shrieks of its helpless victims. The sacking of the negro 
orphan-asylum, the murder of colored persons, and the other 
hideous cruelties of the rioters, turned old pro-slavery Demo- 
crats, by the thousand, into red-hot Abolitionists. The entire 
affair, moreover, with all its disgrace and misery, was finally 
charged over to the account which was to be settled with the 
Rebellion. Everybody felt that a Draft, or something even 
more dreadful, ought to be put in operation at once, and that 
nothing else under heaven was half so bad as a Mob. 

The Governor of New York had not distinguished himself, 
during the i-iot, by any effort of his to suppress it, but he con- 
tinued a demand he had made upon the President for a post- 
ponement of the Draft, and for sundry modifications of its 
operation. He even went so far as to ask that the postpone- 



THE TURNING POINT. 401 

ment should be until a test of tlie constitutionality of the Act 
should be had before the courts. Mr. Lincoln's reply was, in 
effect, that he had no objection whatever to having the matter 
brought before the Supreme Court, but that, in the mean time, 
the Draft must go on and the ranks of the army must be filled 
up. He said : 

" "We are contending with an enemy who, as I understand, 
drives every able-bodied man he can reach into his ranks, very 
much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen. No 
time is wasted, no argument is used. This produces an army 
which will soon turn upon our now victorious soldiers abeady 
in the field, if they shall not be sustained by recruits as they 
should be." 

The immediate action of the Confederate authorities was 
precisely as descril)ed by the President to Governor Seymour. 
The South called for its last man after the defeat at Gettys- 
burg, and the war went on with a stubbornness of determina- 
tion unsurpassed in liistory. 

It was not in Mr. Lincoln's nature to witlihold his admiration 
from the ability and corn-age of the men with whom he was 
contending. To him, as to any right-minded man, the record 
of tlieir fruitless daring and misdirected devotion had in it a 
sort of mournful fascination. 

Who can feel other than an emotion of sadness and regret, 
for instance, in mentally looking down the slope at the Gettys- 
burg fight and seeing Pickett's magnificent columns and lines 
march on and melt away in that wonderful charge which was, 
after all, a blunder? And so of many another charge and 
rally of our gallant but misguided brethren of the now doomed 
Confederacy. 



402 ABEAEAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTEE XLIX. 

THOKNS. 

Poisoned Arrows— The Ways of a Workingman— Western Bickerings— 
An Extraordinary Congress — Presenting the President's Case — Pre- 
paring the Political Future — Visitors at the White House — Wearing 
^way — Unconditional Unionism Portrayed — Voices of Goodwill from 
Europe— The Gettysburg Speech. 

It is well to keep in sight the fact that the bitter opposition 
to the policy of the Administration had generally assumed the 
shape of a personal detestation of the President. Hatred has 
keen eyes, and it made no error in tliis, for he was " the Admin- 
istration." 

No satire was too pointed, no ridicule too coarse, no calumny 
too vile, no vituperation too profane, to be hurled at the man 
whom both American and English journalists did not hesitate 
to describe as a "gorilla" and as "the Illinois ape." Well 
might even so respectable an affair as the London Punch, 
after his death, in 1865, print with his obituary its versified 
and thorough contrition for its course towards him as a man 
and ruler.* It is not possible to rightly measure the strength 
of any man without taking into account aU the weights mak- 
ing up the burden he is carrying. It is not pleasant, now, to 
think of such a man ex|30sed to such foul and cowardly abuse ; 
but he had it all to endure daily, nevertheless. 

His personal manner changed but little, and whatever varia- 
tions came were not caused by any thought or purpose of his 
own. Any special reserve, or coldness, or sternness, as well as 

* See Appendix. 



THORNS. 403 

any special heartiness in his greetings of men or women, was 
an outward expression which took care of itseK, for he was no 
actor. From his childhood to his last days, his kindly nature 
came to the surface in a smile on reaching out his hand to grasp 
another. He could not help it. A child could stop him and 
get a pleasant word from him, even if he were on his way to 
the State Department or the War Office. Some success had 
been attained by Mrs. Lincoln in her efforts at securing 
greater care in matters of dress, but the care was almost 
entirely her own, he merely submitting to occasional new 
clothes with more docility, including gloves on state occasions. 
He was a man of too much good sense to despise the minor 
social proprieties of all sorts, but his head and heart were too 
full of the larger interests of his position to spare much thought 
for its formalities. It had not been easy to make him attend 
regularly to his meals in Springfield, and the difficulty in- 
creased in Washington, Towards liis immediate subordinates, 
private secretaries, messengers, and other officials or servants, it 
may almost be said that he had no manner at all, he took their 
presence and the perfoiTQance of their duties so utterly for 
granted. Not one of them was ever made to feel, unpleasantly, 
the fact of his inferior position by reason of any look or word of 
the President. All were well assured that they could not get 
a word from him unless the business which brought them to 
his elbow justified them in coming. The number of times that 
Mrs. Lincoln herself entered his business-room at the White 
House could probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. 
It is a misuse of words and a falsification of ideas to say or 
think that this absoi-ption in duty and simplicity in manner 
implied or produced any real lack of dignity. True dignity of 
character can carry well what littleness breaks down under. 
Tlie most superficial observer, looking in upon Lincoln and his 
Cabinet of uncommonly strong men, during an hour of trial and 
its counsels, could have had no difficulty in pointing out their 
unquestionable chief and leader. 



404 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

Mr. Lincoln, in all his pnbKc career, invariably left his per- 
sonal popularity to take care of itself. He never for one 
moment hesitated to do the most unpopular things that were 
required of him by the duties of the hour. In the long-run 
events were pretty sure to justify his judgment, even in cases 
where it had gone against that of other men or contrary to 
local public opinion. 

Concerning a multitude of matters, including many of great 
importance, he was compelled to form his conclusions from 
such information as he was able to obtain from interested 
parties, making such allowances as he could for their preju- 
dices. It was needful to trust largely to representations made 
by men whose social, political, or military position seemed to 
render them trustworthy and responsible witnesses. A notable 
instance of this occurred in the summer and fall of 1863. It 
had been difficult to steer a straight course among the jarring 
factions of Missouri and Kansas, especially because they all 
contained so many able and excellent men. Had each of the 
more prominent Union men of that section been in fact the 
being he was described by some equally active patriotic neigh- 
bor, Mr. Lincoln's task in the premises would have been com- 
paratively easy. The foreign element in both States was large, 
and was mainly composed of German immigrants of the better 
classes. The !N"ew England settlers were numerous and were 
generally of the extreme anti-slavery type. The " old settler" 
element, on the other hand, was not at all anti-slavery, and a 
good deal of its " Union" feeling had been developed some- 
what late in the day, but it was none the less important and en- 
titled to thoughtful consideration. The " rebel sympathizers" 
were also numerous, and added to the difficulties of the situa- 
tion the continual complications of their intrigues and conspira- 
cies. It was simply impossible for any military commander, 
however competent as an " army man," to so carry himself in 
his management of affairs as not to get himself into trouble. 
Every man Mr. Lincoln sent there got in, if time were given 



THORNS. 405 

him. From the day of Gaieral Fremont's withdrawal, varie- 
ties of discontents had exhibited themselves in many annoying 
ways. There were not many " leading men," Senators, Con- 
gressmen, governors, generals, or editors, from the western bank 
of the Mississippi and beyond, who had not at one time or 
another obtained an interview with the President to explain to 
him the goodness and wisdom of their own faction and the un- 
mixed evil of every other. 

Such was the case, in a measure, with several other States 
and localities ; but nowhere else was the difficulty quite so in- 
grained and irremediable. Kansas and Missouri had been a 
sort of battle-ground, even before the war, and they had not 
yet entirely ceased to be so. The troubles in the Eastern 
States, in the Center, in the Northwest, were pretty well over- 
come by the effects of the great victories and of the Draft Eiot 
in New York. Still, the poHtical situation could not be con- 
sidered at all clear so long as the disturbances in the far "West 
were so great and were so directly attributed to the acts of 
" satraps" retained in power by the President's favoritism and 
incapacity. 

The time drew near for the annual meeting, at Washington, 
of the Grand Council of the Union League, and the public 
generally was not at all aware of the fact. The disaffected 
politicians of Kansas and Missouri were, however, and they 
were all of them members of the League. The delegations 
from those States to the Grand Council were composed exclu- 
sively of the critics of the Administration. They included 
United States Senators, Representatives, and a Governor or so, 
and all the way across the country they addressed gatherings 
of people and rehearsed their story of the blunders and tpan- 
nies of the Government. They reached the city of Washing- 
ton in due time, and they attended the Grand Council. 

This was an admirably selected representative body of men, 
fresh from the people. It was an independent Congress, an 
important part of whose membership was entitled to seats in 



406 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the other " Congress," provided for by the Constitution of the 
United States. The session was secret, of course, and there was 
no reason why men should not talk freely. Mr. Lincoln never 
knew — perhaps — how thoroughly his Western policy and 
much of his other pohcy was pulled in pieces in the course of 
that verbally stormy evening. His assailants had everji;hing 
their own way at first. They labored with fiery energy. It 
was a desperate effort of the personal opposition in his own 
party to create a sentiment against him in timely preparation 
for the political canvass of 1864. The assault was well planned 
and was ably and even eloquently made, but it failed some- 
what ignobly. 

The Kansas military management had been selected as the 
very worst feature of all that part of the " dictatorship and 
tyrannical personal despotism," but no proper preparation had 
been made for the manner and matter of the reply. The 
Council seemed to be in almost entire sympathy with the op- 
pressed and downtrodden complainants, and no single voice 
had been raised in defense of the Administration. 

At last, however, one of the Grand Officers of the League 
took the stand. He simply offered evidence, written and oral, 
that the policy of Mr. Lincoln in Kansas, in whole and in part, 
had been at its outset advised and all but dictated by the very 
men who now assailed him for it. It was also shown that at 
no point from the beginning of the war had the President 
failed to consult with the Senators and members of Congress 
from both Kansas and Missouri. 

There was very little of what is called eloquence in such a 
rejoinder ; but no more sjDeeches were made, for none were 
needed. The Council promptly and all but unanimously, omit- 
ting the malcontents from the count, adopted a resolution ap- 
proving and sustaining the Administration. 

It was a vote which meant a great deal at that pecuhar junc- 
ture, and it was followed by yet another which was destined to 
produce important poHtical fruit. This was the action of the 



THOEKS. 407 

Grand Council providing that its next Annual Meeting should 
be held at the same time and in the same locality with the 
!N'ational Convention of the Republican party for the nomina- 
tion of candidates for President and Vice-President. The 
Union League of America was fast becoming, to all present 
intents and purposes, the organized body of the Republican 
party and the Home Guard and rear-guard of the Union 
armies in the field. 

The members of the Grand Council went home and reported 
what things they had heard and seen at "Washington. Every 
man of them had heard and seen Abraham Lincoln, and, with 
a few exceptions, was proud of the fact and ready to sustain 
him in anything he might thenceforth see fit to do. It was 
simply impossible for any unprejudiced man or woman to look 
him in the face and take his kindly hand and then to not laugh 
at or be angry with the next lunatic who should speak of him 
as a " t}Tant." 

Even many who came to that gathering loaded with false 
ideas left their burdens on the steps of the White House when 
they came away from their interview. If it had been possible 
and if Mr. Lincoln could have met such a popular representa- 
tion, newly selected every month in the year and man by man, 
there would have been small misunderstanding of him by the 
people. In one manner he was actually so doing, for men and 
women were continually coming to him with their sorrows 
and petitions. Now it was a mother asking for her sick or 
wounded son, that she might take him home with her and 
nurse him back to health. Then it was another mother, who 
had given four of her sons to her country and three had fallen 
in battle and but one was left, and she wanted him. Then it 
was a group of anxious men and women pleading for the for- 
feited life of some deserter, or for the estabhshment of a hos- 
pital, or for some other mitigation of the horrors of the war. 

Not infrequently it was even an embassy from " the other 
gide," — some mother or wife pleading for a captive son or 



408 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

husband. Mr. Noah Brooks, at that time a Washington corre- 
spondent for one of the N'ew York papers, has given an in- 
stance of this latter kind which Mr. Lincoln himseK, in one of 
his very few spare minutes, wrote out for Mr. Brooks to print 
as a newspaper paragraph. On the opposite page appears a 
fac-simile of the Httle scrap, entitled by Mr. Lincoln, "The 
President's Last, Shortest and Best Speech." 

He listened to all, bore with aU, sympathized with all ; and 
he was glad indeed to be offered a fair excuse for extending 
mercy to an offender. 

All the while, through the heavy shadows and through the 
brief gleams of broken sunshine, the hearts of the people be- 
came more and more knit to his, and there came to be less and 
less need of formal explanations between him and the patriotic 
masses. 

By forcible draft as by voluntary enlistment, Mr. Lincoln 
was calling upon men to step forward and die for their coun- 
try, and he well knew that his own name was among those 
" enrolled." He verily was dying by slow inches. It has been 
said, with some show of probability, that before he left Illi- 
nois he as well as others had a presentiment that he would fall 
by the hand of violence. There would be small cause for 
wonder if all that is related of this matter were minutely true. 
Still smaller occasion would there be to regard so very reason- 
able an impression as at aU prophetic or supernatural. 

The strong impression now spoken of was of another sort, 
and was equally reasonable. To one friend he said : " The 
springs of life are wearing away, and I shall not last." To 
another, in apology for teUing a humorous story : " If it were 
not for this occasional vent, I should die." To another : " I 
feel a presentiment that I shall not outlast the Rebellion, Wlien 
it is over, my work will be done." To another : " Whichever 
way it ends, I have the impression that I shall not last long 
after it is over." In 1864 Mrs. H. B. Stowe asked him " what 
pohcy he proposed to pursue after the war." With a mourn- 



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THORNS. 409 

ful sort of laugh, he replied : " After the war? I shall not be 
troubled about that. The war is killing me." 

Men looked into his face, day by day, and saw there something 
they could not imderstand. It gave them the idea of a man 
in suppressed pain, and they were apt to turn away with little 
inclination to find fault with him. Some weight should be 
given to all this, with reference to his " personal ambition" for 
a second term of office and his asserted desire to perpetuate his 
political power. 

There was, as there always is and must be, a great deal of self- 
conceit and stupidity in the country in those days. There were 
men, in very considerable numbers, who had learned little or 
nothing in the terrible school of the war. Some of these, pos- 
ing for the moment as " unconditional Union men," proposed 
and called an universal mass-meeting, to be held at Springfield, 
Illinois. That this was Mi\ Lincoln's old home was an impor- 
tant part of the " stage effect " designed to be produced. As 
a part of the preparations for the announced discussion of the 
faults and follies of the Government, a written invitation to 
be present and hear himself discussed was sent to the President 
of the United States. 

"With this invitation, these Unconditional Union men for- 
warded a statement of some of the conditions upon which they 
were willing to he unconditional. They thus gave him an ad- 
mirable opportunity for talking plainly to the elements, the 
whole comitry over, which they so well represented, and, at the 
same time, for setting them up for exhibition in a tolerably 
clear light before the world. His reply was dated August 23, 
1863, at a time when he was making extensive preparations for 
employing colored men as soldiers. It is almost conversational 
in style and language, but was perfectly adapted to its purpose. 

Among its other pointed, or stirring, or stinging sentences, 
are these : 

" You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them 
seem willing to fight for you ; but no matter. Fight you, then, ' 



410 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

exclusively to save the Union. I issued the Proclamation on 
purpose to aid you in saving the Union. ... I thought that, 
in your struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the negroes 
should cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the 
enemy in his resistance to you. But negroes, like other men, 
act upon motives. Why should they do anything for us if we 
will do nothing for them ? If they stake their lives for us, they 
must be prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise 
of freedom. And the promise, being made, must be kept." 

That was a clear enough setting forth of the mere worldly 
wisdom of his policy. It offered precisely the kind of self- 
preservation argument which such men might be supposed to 
be able to comprehend. He added, " The signs look better," 
and gave them a brief sketch of the advances ah*eady made to- 
ward the military end. He closed his reply with words which 
none who read them were likely to forget, and it mattered very 
little that some would not soon forgive. 

" Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will 
come soon, and come to stay, and so come as to be worth the 
keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that 
among freemen there can be no successful appeal from the 
ballot to the bullet, and that those who take such appeal are 
sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And there will be 
some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, 
and clinched teeth, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped 
mankind on to this great consummation ; while I fear there 
will be some white ones unable to forget that with malignant 
heart and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it." 

IN'ever for one moment, from the beginning to the end, did 
Mr. Lincoln forget that the war for freedom and the Union 
was fought on behalf of the oppressed of all nations. There 
was no cause for wonder that the intelligent aristocracies and 
higher castes of Europe should desire the success of the Con- 
federacy. The Pebels in a manner represented them and were 
curiously proud to say so. On the other hand, that multitudes 



THORNS. 411 

of the classes in other lands whose interests were at stake in 
the struggle— the ignorant, the poor, the toilers — should receive 
and hold and act upon a deep conviction of the truth of the 
matter, constitutes one of the most noteworthy features of the 
time. The cotton operatives of England suffered more than 
others from the effects of the war ; but they were wiser than 
their rulers, and their hearts were with the N'orth. 

In 18G3 they sent to the President a letter, from the work- 
ingmen of Manchester in particular, but well understood to be 
the voice of a great multitude. They expressed their sympathy 
and good-will and hope, and he sent them a reply in which he 
said to them : " It has been often and studiously represented 
that the attempt to overthrow this government, which was 
built upon the foundation of human rights, and to substitute 
for it one which should rest exclusively upon the basis of 
human slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. 
Through the action of our disloyal fellow-citizens, the work- 
ingmen of Europe have been subjected to severe trial, for the 
purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. Under these 
circumstances I cannot but regard your decisive utterances upon 
the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which 
has not been surpassed in any age or in any country," 

More and more clear, as time went on, became ]Mr. Lincoln's 
perception of the Source of all true heroism. More continu- 
ously and thoughtfully outspoken became his public acknowl- 
edgments and declarations of his perceptions. In his public 
dispatch announcing to the nation an assured victory at Gettys- 
burg, he expressed his desire tliat, in the customary celebration 
of " The Fourth of July," the anniversary of national inde- 
pendence, "He whose will, not ours, should everj^here be 
done, be everywhere reverenced with profoundest gratitude." 

The country never before had such a keeping of the Fourth ; 
but it is worth while to note how sudden was the change from 
utter depression to a capacity for " celebration." In the city 
of Washington itself the usual preparations had been under 



412 ABBAMAM LINCOLN 

way for some time and on a somewhat larger scale than usual. 
Such was the gloomy state of the public mind, however, that 
several of the most patriotic citizens and even well-known 
statesmen openly declared their refusal to join in the exercises 
of the day. The f eehng grew to such a strength that a meet- 
ing of " loyal citizens" was held, and a committee appointed to 
call iTpon the Chairman of the Celebration Committee having 
the matter in charge and urge an abandonment of the whole 
affair, as inappropriate under the truly awful circumstances. 
The appointed committee called upon the chairman and stated 
their errand, receiving for reply : 

" Gentlemen, there will be a celebration of the Fourth of 
July in "Washington this year, and there will be a big one too, 
if we can hear Lee's cannon all the time, and if we adjourn 
from the speaker's stand to the trenches." 

It was made a great day, there and everywhere, in the abid- 
ing assurance from Mr. Lincoln that the sound of General Lee's 
cannon was forever receding. Everywhere was read, as a part 
of the regular proceedings, the dispatch of the President declar- 
ing his belief in the God who had given to the nation the fruits 
of that great battle and of the parallel victories in the West. 

He had not, however, completed the great lessons he was to 
teach from the tremendous text of the Gettysburg fight. The 
State of Pennsylvania bought a piece of land on the battle-field 
and gave it to the Government of the United States as a ceme- 
tery wherein to bury the bodies of the slain heroes. It was 
land on which many of them had actually fallen, and some were, 
already buried there. On the 19th of ]!^ovember the battle 
cemetery was dedicated with solemn ceremonies. The Hon. 
Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, delivered an oration worthy 
of his high oratorical fame. Mr. Lincoln had been invited 
to be present, but the stem pressure of his duties pre- 
vented elaborate preparation. After leaving Washington, while 
on the way, he wrote a few sentences wliich have found a 
lasting place in the hearts and memories of men. 



THORNS. 413 

" Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth 
upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and 
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that 
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long 
endure. We are met upon a great battle-field of that war. We 
have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting- 
place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might 
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, 
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and 
dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our 
power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long 
remember, what we say here ; but it can never forget what 
they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated 
here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have 
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here 
dedicated to the great task remaining for us, that from these 
honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which 
they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here 
highly resolve that tliese dead shall not have died in vain ; that 
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and 
that the government of the people, by the people, and for the 
people shall not perish from the earth." 

Among the vast throng listening there were those who had 
expected a long speech, full of they knew not what, and so 
were disappointed, and freely declared as much ; but Mr. Lin- 
coln had said enough, and all the loyal land responded with a 
deep-voiced and reverent " Amen I" 



414 
FAC-SIMILE 



Gettysburg Cemetery Speech^ 

AS COP/ ED OUT FOR ENGRAVING, 

BY THE 

PRESIDENT, AFTER ITS DELIVERY. 



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416 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTEE L. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 

Keeping Good Workmen — Absence of Favoritism — A Political Revolution 
—A National Prayer-Meeting— The Coming General— Helpless in- 
trigues. 

It would be fair to describe Mr. Lincoln's management of 
tbe long list of military commanders under his direction as a 
persistent effort by him to put each man, as nearly as might 
be, in the place for which he was best fitted and wherein he 
could perform the most effective service. 

If, having appointed any man to an especial duty, he found 
him insufficient for it, he was quite wiUing to transfer him to 
another. If a strong man's usefulness were impaired or de- 
stroyed by local or transitory causes, no undue or continuing 
weight was ever assigned to these. 

Fine illustrations of this rare element in the President's ca- 
pacity as a ruler are furnished by the records of Generals 
Bm*nside and Hooker, after each in turn had ceased to com- 
mand the Ai*my of the Potomac. Neither Fredericksburg nor 
Chancellorsville was permitted to deprive the country of valu- 
able services. There was no sort of quarrel between either of 
them and the Commander-in-Chief, and they went on, in new 
fields and with other armies, to prove the soundness of his 
judgment concerning them. 

The watchfulness required for the exercise of such a judg- 
ment was aU but sleepless, and called for the constant study of 
circumstances as weU as of men and of apparent results. Mr. 
Lincoln's hours of hard-won sohtude were a perpetual " court 
of inquiry." He followed every movement of every army 



THE BEGINNING OF TEE END. 411 

ynth. the map before him, yet never permitted himself to make 
the error of meddling with the decision of a competent general 
in the field. He himself, unintentionally but accm-ately, sets 
forth his methods of study and control, in his letter of con- 
gratulation to General Grant after the Yicksburg triumph. 
It is dated July 13, 1863. 

" My deae General : I do not remember that you and I 
have ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful ac- 
knowledgment for the almost inestimable service you have 
done the countr}'. I write to say a word further. When you 
first reached the \-icinity of Yicksburg, I thought you should 
do what you finally did, — march the troops across the neck, 
run the batteries ^^-ith the transports, and then go below ; and 
I never had any faith, except a general hope, that you knew 
better than I that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like 
could succeed. When you got below and took Port Gibson, 
Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the 
river and join General Banks, and when you turned northward, 
east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I wish, now, 
to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right 
and I was wrong." 

Every man who did his duty was sure of precisely such 
thoughtful and unselfish appreciation, if by any means the 
facts in the case could be brought to the knowledge of the 
President. Sometimes, beyond question, the facts were not so 
brought to his knowledge, and injustice followed ; but it was 
never by any neglect upon the pai-t of Mr. Lincoln. Even in- 
jured men came to so understand the matter at last, and few 
were so unreasonable as to demand from him omniscience as 
well as justice. As a whole, the record of his assignments to 
duty will bear a remarkably close scrutiny, and his continual 
discoveries of the men he was looking for were notably Justin 
ficd by their subsequent careers and achievements. His per- 
sonal attachments, strong as they admittedly were, never were 
permitted to come between him and his perception of the re- 



418 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

quirements of the public service. His oldest son, Eobert Todd 
Lincoln, was a student at college wlien the war broke out. 
His father did but restrain the young man's enthusiastic im- 
pulse to join the army and kept him at his books until his 
course of study was completed. A subordinate staff appoint- 
ment was then given him, just as such appointments were given 
to hundreds of other bright young men, and there all parental 
" favoritism" terminated. The President's son served to the 
end of the war and left the army as a simple captain. It is 
more than probable that his abilities would have given him 
a higher grade but that his very birthright was in his way. 
The record conveys its lesson forcibly. 

The remainder of the summer and autumn of the year 1863 
was well marked by military activities and successes, and only 
here and there by any considerable check to the national arms, 
both in the East and West. Yery much the most important 
work accomphshed, however, was largely in the nature of a 
clearing up and securing title to the ground already won, and 
preparing for the final struggle. 

The results of the fall elections were such as might have 
been expected. The reaction of popular feehng from deep 
depression to buoyant hope was sufficient to carry every State 
but one, New Jersey, for the Administration. Even there the 
combined opposition assumed an attitude of earnest Unionism. 
A Congress was secured which could be depended on for 
voting the last man and the last dollar for war purposes. 
It nevertheless contained a number of active and able men 
who were anything but well pleased with Mr. Lincoln's per- 
sonal control of the affairs in his hands. There was little to be 
wondered at in this. He was no tyrant, indeed, and he was 
thoughtfully cautious in his respect for aU the prerogatives of 
the legislative branch of the government ; but the fact of his 
autocracy within his own sphere was often painfully manifest. 
The United States contained but one President, and he was 
necessarily dictatorial in war times : and his name was Abraham 



THE BEQUmiNG OF TEE END. 419 

Lincoln. It was not always pleasant for some other man 
strong of will and conscious of capacity and of good purposes 
towards liimseK and his country, when brought into sudden 
contact or collision with an unyielding power he had never 
felt before. 

Yery little public grumbling was done, however, before 
Congress assembled at Washington, for the people were hardly 
in a state of mind to listen to it kindly, except from mouth- 
pieces of the beaten " opposition." The President, without 
especially laboring for it, was fast rallying to his personal sup- 
port the great religious element which, in all its diversified 
forms of doctrinal belief and of semi-repudiation of doctrinal 
belief, is the positive body and soul of the American people. 
He was uniting, as one man, the multitude of earnest hearts 
that believed, absolutely, that the cause of the Union was the 
cause of the God Almighty. 

On the 15th of July, 1863, he issued a proclamation, imme- 
diately following up his previous utterances of a similar nature, 
in which he named the 6th of August as a day of pubHc 
thanksgiving and prayer. He asked all men and women to 
" render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for the won- 
derful things He has done in the nation's behalf ; and invoke 
the influences of his Holy Spirit to subdue the anger which has 
produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel rebellion ; 
to change the hearts of the insurgents ; to guide the counsels 
of the government with wisdom adequate to so great a national 
emergency ; and to visit with tender care and consolation, 
throughout the length and breadth of our land, all those who, 
through the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, battles, and sieges, 
have been brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate; and 
finally, to lead the whole nation through paths of repentance 
and submission to the Divine Will, back to the perfect enjoy- 
ment of union and fraternal peace." 

That was a grand prayer-meeting; and it was led by the 
President in person. He made the customary " Thanksgiving 



420 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 

Day" in November the occasion of a similar proclamation ; and 
it is through him, in a very great measure, that that day has 
ceased to be local and has become general and national in its 
annual observance. He again summoned the people to prayer 
and thanksgiving on the 7th of December, after the Union 
successes in East Tennessee. The conviction grew in the 
minds of all that the President was fighting this fight out in 
the name of God and believed that God was helping him. It 
was easier for the masses to strengthen their own faith after 
that idea took permanent root. The very few who sneered at 
the whole thing as an hypocritical formality were not num- 
bered among those whose hearts were aching over losses or who 
were meditating further sacrifices for the cause. Men who 
suffer have a keen instinct which informs them of the suffering 
of another man, and it was of little use, in those days, to ac- 
cuse Abraham Lincoln of playing a part. He was well hated, 
but even his worst enemies were forced to believe in him. 

One of the steps towards the proposed reorganization of the 
Army was the appointment of General Grant to the command 
of the Military Department of the Mississippi ; but it was only 
one of several steps which the President had in view. The 
rest of them depended very much upon the course and out 
come of the winter campaigns. 

It was by no means plain that General Meade was the right 
man, above all others, to lead the Army of the Potomac ; much 
less to handle the tremendous forces preparing for the last 
struggle with the KebelHon. It was sure that the Confederacy 
would die hard, striking terrible blows to its last breath. The 
situation demanded something more than an accomplished 
soldier ; sometlnng more, even, than a good general. It was 
time for the war to be closed, and only a hand of iron could 
be entrusted with the relentless and machine-hke processes of 
its closing. The eyes of the nation as well as of the President 
were turning with more and more of definite hope and pur- 
pose towards the man for the hour which was coming. 



TEE BEOmmNG OF TEE END. 421 

The Message to Congress contained, of necessity, an his- 
torical review of the events of the year and a setting forth of 
their justification of the leading features of the policy of the 
Administration. Emancipation, employment of colored sol- 
diers, reconstruction, foreign relations, the national finances, a 
number of minor topics, were presented in proper form, but it 
was mainly a " report of progress" and an expression of con- 
fident hope. The territory already rescued from the gi-asp of 
the Kichmond government was to be restored to relations with 
the Constitution and the laws as rapidly as possible. IS'o doubt 
remained that its present reoccupation implied permanent pos- 
session. Is'o power existed in the now shattered and weakened 
Confederacy to break the national mastery of the regions so to 
be reconstructed, and the beginning of the end had come. 

A conviction of this fact settled firmly in the minds of all 
the pohticians north of the Eebel army-lines, and it produced 
some curious results. Close upon the announcement by Mr. 
Lincoln that he regarded his administration as a success and not 
a failure came the accusation that he was ambitious of a re- 
election to the Presidency. The suggestion that he was already 
intriguing for such a result followed as a matter of course, and 
it came from the lips of the busy men who were already in- 
triguing to prevent his success. The twin accusations, as such, 
died a very early and perfectly natural death. The sound- 
minded people, the country over, took it for granted that Mr. 
Lincoln desired a second term and thought no whit the worse 
of him. No man with unclouded brain could have understood 
or approved a willingness, on the part of the President, to lay 
down such a work before it was completed. Not many would 
have held him morally excusable for such a sin against the 
nation. He would need another term to reap and gather in 
the great harvest now ripening, and there was no other reaper 
to whom the task was at all hkely to be given unless the " op- 
position" themselves should succeed in electing their man. 
As for " intrigue," it was only too obvious that no other form 



422 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

of it was called for than might be included in a vigorous and 
successful prosecution of the war. Everybody saw the point 
clearly, and not a few were intelligent enough to perceive and 
say that the politicians had a great deal more time on their 
hands for that kind of political work than had the over-wearied 
toiler in the map-strewn room in the White House. They had 
all the time, indeed, that was used in the premises. Mr. Lin- 
coln gave the matter no attention whatever, except when some- 
body forced it upon him. The real intriguers talked much 
and worked hard and failed for a long time to discover what a 
mere skeleton of a faction they really were. It consisted al- 
most altogether of " leading men," and the further they went 
the greater became the gap between them and the vote-casting 
masses of the Union. 



TEE SECOND NOMINATION. 423 



CHAPTEE LI. 

THE SECOND XOillNATION. 

Lieutenant-General Grant— Tbe First Great Relief —Dealing with Guerillas 
—Condensation of the Confederacy— The Double National Convention 
—The Administration Formally Approved. 

The military events of the winter of 1863-4, intensely inter- 
esting as they were, belong exclusively to the history of the 
war. They were such as enabled Mr. Lincoln to move stead- 
ily forward along the line he had so distinctly marked out. 

The grade of Lieutenant-General, previously created solely 
for the purpose of conferring an honor upon General Scott, 
was revived by Act of Congress, February 29, 1864, and the 
President fulfilled his own pre\'ious purpose concerning it when 
he complied with the popular acclamation which named Ulys- 
ses S. Grant as the man for the place. It was equally a matter 
of course that the President and the Lieutenant-General should 
instantly agree upon General W. T. Sherman as Grant's succes- 
sor in the AVest. 

General Grant received his new commission on the 9th of 
March, 1864, at the hands of the President in person, at the 
Executive Mansion, in the presence of the Cabinet and General 
Halleck. The occasion was made somewhat ceremonial, but 
the words spoken on either side were few and very much to 
the point. The appointment of an officer outranking all others 
was an affair of momentous importance. So far as the Army was 
concerned, only the President and, through him, the Secretary of 
War held higher commissions. Still it should be borne in mmd 
that the new tank of General Grant did not necessarily affect 



424 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. ^ 

or change or reduce the rank of any other officer in any of the 
armies. General Meade remained as before, for instance, in 
direct command of the Army of the Potomac, which after- 
wards received Grant's orders through Meade. General Hal- 
leck did not cease to be the President's military counselor be- 
cause Mr. Lincoln had at last obtained an arm of iron where- 
with to deal the blows he had so longed to deal, but in vain. 

General Grant at once entered upon the discharge of his 
duties, taking up his headquarters with the Army of the Poto- 
mac, on the 10th of March ; and it was not long before the 
President began to experience an unwonted feeling of rehef. 
The tremendous burden which he had borne so long and so 
patiently began to slip away a little. He could with difficulty 
realize it at first, the situation was so new and so agreeable. 
A few weeks later, in April, a personal friend came into his 
office on Sunday forenoon. The President lay upon the sofa, 
seeming more than usually fatigued but cheerful. He did not 
rise at first, but chatted freely upon several topics. At last 
his visitor remarked : 

"IS'ow, Mr. Lincoln, what sort of a man is Grant? I've 
never even seen him. He has taken hold here while I have 
been laid up. What do you think of him V 

The President half arose, and laughed silently, as he replied : 

" "Well, , I hardly know what to think of him, alto- 
gether. He's the quietest little fellow you ever saw." 

" How is that ?" 

" Why, he makes the least fuss of any man you ever knew. 
I believe two or three times he has been in this room a minute 
or so before I knew he was here. It's about so all around. 
The only evidence you have that he's in any place is that he 
makes things git ! Wherever he is, things move !" 

He grew energetic as he talked, and there was almost a glow 
upon his face. He was describing the man he had been long- 
ing for. Other questions and answers followed, until the visi- 
tor inquired : 



TEE SECOm) NOMmATIOK 425 

" But how about Grant's generalsliip ? Is lie going to be the 
man V^ 

Mr. Lincoln again half arose, and emphasized his reply with 
his long forefinger : 

" , Grant is the first general I've had ! He's a general !" 

" How do you mean, Mr. Lincoln ?" 

" "Well, I'U tell you what I mean. You know how it's been 
with all the rest. As soon as I put a man in command of the 
army, he'd come to me with a plan of a campaign and about as 
much as say, ' Now, I don't believe I can do it, but if you say 
so I'll try it on,' and so put the responsibility of success or 
failure on me. They all wanted me to be the general. Now 
it isn't so with Grant. He hasn't told me what his plans are. 
I don't know, and I don't want to know. I'm glad to find a 
man that can go ahead without me." 

A slightly critical reply brought the President bolt upright. 

" You see, , when any of the rest set out on a campaign, 

they'd look over matters and pick out some one thing they were 
short of and they knew I couldn't give 'em, and tell me they 
couldn't hope to win unless they had it, — and it was most gene- 
rally cavaby." He paused for one of his quiet, long, peculiar 
laughs and went on. " Kow, when Grant took hold, I was waiting 
to see what his pet impossibility would be, and I reckoned it 
would be cavalry, as a matter of course, for we hadn't horses 
enough to mount even what men we had. There were fifteen 
thousand, or thereabouts, up near Harper's Ferry, and no horses 
to put them on. Well, the other day Grant sends to me about 
those very men, just as I expected ; but what he wanted to 
know was whether he should make infantry of 'em or disband 
'em. He doesn't ask impossibilities of me, and he's the first 
general I've had that didn't." 

Somewhat carelessly and half grotesquely he had sketched 
, some of his most trying responsibilities, such as had pressed upon 
him from before the firing of the Sumter gun. Men of all other 
sorts, as well as 2;enerals in command of armies, had demanded 



426 ABEARAM LINCOLN. 

impossibilities of him, and some had hated and denounced him 
because he performed no miracle. He might well rejoice also, 
as he did, in the arrival of a man who would require no urging, 
but who would be sure to strike again, after every battle, ^\dth 
supreme indifference to the semblance which that battle might 
bear to either victory or defeat. That part of the load could 
be confidently laid aside : but what remained was still over- 
heavy for mortal shoulders. 

The work of restoring order in the reoccupied States was 
going bravely forward, and the severest measures for the sup- 
pression of guerilla warfare and neighborhood revenges were 
enforced with the President's full approval. That is to say, 
with his full approval of as much as he knew of the precise 
manner of the enforcement, for a good deal of bloody work 
was done whereof no report went up. The merciful side of his 
nature inclined him, in this important matter, to extend all pos- 
sible protection to undefended homes and women and children. 
The continuous record of atrocities committed was an all-suffi- 
cient justification. He took all reasonable means, at the same 
time, for maintaining and defending the rights of colored sol- 
diers in the ranks of Union armies. East and West. 

IN'ot taking into specific consideration operations on the sea, 
nor sea-coast defenses, nor detached commands, the military 
situation in the spring of the year 1864 may be summed up in 
outline as follows : 

The dimensions and the strength of the Confederacy had 
been materially reduced, but the latter had been in a manner 
concentrated for its last despairing struggle. Its armies were 
composed largely of veterans, and were led by generals of un- 
questionable capacity. It had massed the greater part of these 
in two main bodies with their branches. One, under Lee, de- 
fended its old ground in Virginia. The other, under Johnston, 
held northwestern Georgia, and with it the railway connections 
and topographical advantages which made tliat position the 
key to all that remained to the Kebellion of the cotton-growing 



TEE SECOND NOMINATION. 427 

States. Mucli remained to be done in Louisiana, Texas, Ar- 
kansas, and elsewhere, but these two armies contained about all 
that was really left to carry on the war for slavery. Against 
these, therefore, all the hard fighting of the year 1864 was 
planned and directed, and all other operations were of minor 
importance. 

Every now and then half -muffled voices came up from beyond 
the Rebel army-lines, telling of the weariness of their long- 
suffering which the masses of the Southern people were not 
permitted openly to express. They had done all that it was 
possible for human beings to do, and were beginning to per- 
ceive that all subsequent battles were to be in the nature of 
useless bloodshed, bordering horribly close upon the crime of 
wholesale murder. ]S'o voice whatever, nor any small murmur 
of one, came from the merciless despotism at Richmond or 
from the men who controlled its armies in the field. They 
were manifestly determined to continue the strife to the bitter 
end. 

The machinery of the Federal government was now in 
almost perfect working order, but its very bulk and its re- 
morseless efficiency made it an incubus. The people were fast 
wearying of incessant exactions, in spite of the general appear- 
ance of prosperity. The President was straining every power 
given him to maintain the Army and Navy at their utmost 
activity, and the Opposition was almost hourly supplied with 
texts, great or small, upon which to preach its crusade against 
his administration. 

Extravagance, wastefulness, corruption, favoritism, heartless 
throwing away of human life, — a thousand separate accusations 
swelled steadily into a chorus which was by many men believed 
to arise from the tax-paying and war-sustaining masses. This 
idea was altogether a mistake ; but sundry curious political ex- 
periments were tried before the truth of the matter could be 
demonstrated. At this day there would be small profit in 
relating the dull details of the several experiments. One of 



428 ABEAEAM LINCOLN. 

them included an independent and very irregular " Eepublican 
Convention" at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 31st of May, for the 
purpose of declaring that the national liberties were in danger, 
and that Mr. Lincoln should be set aside in accordance with 
"the one-term principle," which had never been heard of 
before to any noteworthy extent. 

What threatened at first to be a more dangerous, because 
altogether regular, undertaking was made in another way, and 
produced beneficial results. 

The National Convention of the Eepublican party was to 
be held at Baltimore, Maryland, on the 8th of June, 1864, and 
the National Grand Council of the Union League of America 
was summoned to meet in the same city on the 7th. Some- 
thing like two thirds of the delegates to the latter, roughly 
estimated, were also delegates to the former, and the control- 
ling spirits of both were largely the same men. The malcon- 
tent elements of the party secured full and satisfactory repre- 
sentation in the Grand Council, and there were those among 
them who confidently expected to there exert a power which 
would render the renomination of Abraham Lincoln im- 
possible. Some of his best friends were not without anxiety 
as to the results obtainable in such a body meeting in secret 
session. 

The day came, and the city of Baltimore was packed to over- 
flowing. The session of the Grand Council was to be held in 
the evening, and it was not easy for the outside world to guess 
what might be done by men whose lips were closed as to their 
instructions and their purposes. They came together in perfect 
order and decomm, but of course without any audience to hear 
or cheer or interfere. Hardly had the preliminary work of the 
evening been completed before the prepared assault upon the 
Administration in general and Mr. Lincoln in particular was 
vigorously begun and prosecuted. There was a superabun- 
dance of seemingly good material for such an assault, and it 



TEE SECOKD NOMINATION. 429 

seemed before long as if the Council were abont to be swept 
away bj a rising tide. This, however, was mainly because the 
Kansas and Missouri orators and a few others had been quietly 
permitted to have their own way unanswered. Besides, almost 
every man in the whole body of delegates was compelled to 
admit to himseK that mistakes had been committed, by some- 
body; by a great many persons in authority ; perhaps by Mr. 
Lincoln ; perhaps even by Congress ; perhaps by the Kation as 
a whole ; and perhaps by the human race itself. The very bit- 
terness and eloquence of the successive attacks answered an 
admirable purjDose. They cleared away the mental fogs in the 
minds of all who heard, and at last all of these that remained 
required only the strong breeze of one decisive argument. It 
was given by Senator " Jim" Lane of Kansas, himself formerly 
for a season anj-thing but a friend of Mr. Lincoln. He de- 
fended the Administration. His speech was not long, but it 
was masterly, for it enabled each of his hearers to ask himself 
and answer the simple question : 

" Will not the country be safer with Abraham Lincoln as 
President than with any other man I can name V 

There was little further debate after Senator Lane's speech. 
Some voting was done. The difficulty was all over when it 
was discovered that only a couple of dozens of even the dele- 
gates to the Grand Council were wilHng to run the risk of ven- 
turing before the people with any other nominee than Lincoln. 
The anticipated storm had come and gone, and the IN'ational 
Convention the next day formally ratified the decision of the 
Union League ^\'ithout any disturbance whatever. The twenty- 
two votes of Missouri -were cast for General Grant at first, but 
were then changed to Lincoln, and the nomination was declared 
to be unanimous. 

The platform of principles adopted left very little to be asked 
for as an expression of the will and faith and hope of the loyal 
people of the United States. The very act of dropping the 



430 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

name of Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine as a candidate for the 
Yice-Presidency, and the substitution of that of Andrew John- 
son of Tennessee, was a strong recognition and approval of the 
policy of reconstruction. This action is said to have been 
urged by Mr. Lincoln's personal friends at his own private 
request. 

According to custom, the Convention appointed its chair- 
man, Governor Dennison, of Ohio, with a committee, to wait 
upon the President at Washington with a formal announce- 
ment of the action thus taken. He received them, Hstened to 
their address, and responded as follows : 

" Having served four years in the depths of a great and yet 
unended national peril, I can view this call to a second term in 
nowise more flattering to myself than as an expression of the 
public judgment that I may better finish a difficult work in 
which I have labored from the first than could any one less 
severely schooled to the task. In this view, and with assured 
reliance on the Almighty Ruler who has graciously sustained 
us thus far, and with increased gratitude to the generous 
people for their continued confidence, I accept the renewed 
trust with its yet onerous and pei-plexing duties and respon- 
sibilities." 

He was waited upon the same day by a similar committee 
from the Union League, but no report was made to him by 
them of the exact nature of the highly interesting session of 
that body. 

In due time he received the written notification of the 
action of the Republican Convention, with a copy of the plat- 
form, and to this he replied, on the 27th of June : 

" Gentlemen : Your letter of the 14th inst., formally noti- 
ijing me that I have been nominated by the Convention you 
represent for the Presidency of the United States for four 
years from ths fourth of March next, has been received. The 



TEE SECOND NOMINATION. 431 

nomination is gratefully accepted, as the resolutions of the Con- 
vention called the platform are heartily approved. While the 
resolution in regard to the supplanting of republican govern- 
ments on the Western Continent is fully concurred in, there 
might be misunderstanding vrere I not to say that the position 
of the government in relation to the action of France in Mexico, 
as assumed, through the State Department, and endorsed by the 
Convention among the measures and acts of the Executive, 
Tvill be faithfully maintained so long as the state of facts shall 
leave that position pertinent and applicable. I am especially 
gratified that the soldier and seaman were not forgotten by the 
Convention, as they forever must and \rill be remembered by 
the grateful country for whose salvation they devoted their 
lives. 

• " Thanking you for the kind and compHmentary terms in 
which you have communicated the nomination and other pro- 
ceedings of the Convention, I subscribe myself 

" Your obedient servant, 

" ABKAHAii Lincoln." 

The platform and the entire action of the Convention, with 
the terms of their formal acceptance, combined to express one 
fact and idea ; and this was, that the KepubHcan party had 
determined to go before the people upon the record made by 
Mr. Lincoln as President, and to stand or fall with him. The 
Opposition, calHng itself the Democratic party, took up the 
challenge so offered. It should not be necessary to remark in 
this connection, but it may be well to do so for the benefit of 
careless readers, that the parties of that day are not the parties 
of this, whatever may be some of the incidental inheritances 
of our existing political organisms. It is unavoidable to em- 
ploy here the party names then in use ; but it should be with 
the understanding that they do not necessarily describe or 
define anything now in existence. 



432 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

Mr. Lincoln himseK had long since ceased to be a partisan 
in any sense of that word. He was the representative and 
director of the great forces, moral, intellectual, and physical, 
devoted to the work of developing, shaping, defending, and 
perpetuating the new Nation, thenceforth to be known as the 
United States of America. As he himself expressed it in his 
Gettysburg speech, he had " highly resolved that this nation, 
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom ;" and that which 
is born again is no more the same, forever and ever. 



ON TRIAL. 433 



CHAPTEK LII. 

ON TRIAL. 

The Campaign of Calumny — The Reconstruction Proclamation — Traps 
which Captured Nothing — Skirmishing Diplomacy — The Blunders of 
the Opposition — A Union General in Bad Company. 

The National Convention of the Democratic party had been 
called to meet at Chicago on the 2Tth of August. There re- 
mained, therefore, after Mr. Lincoln's second nomination, more 
than two full months during which his enemies might plot 
and plan and search for the weak spots in his ai-mor and devise 
weapons wherewith to stab him. They had in this a great 
apparent advantage, with the concuiTent privilege of misrepre- 
senting whatever he or his might do, or fail to do, in the mean 
time. Their party press could describe every battle as more 
or less of a defeat and keep its columns open to the virulent 
expression of every possible form of criticism, discontent, or 
personal enmity. The Administration was on trial before the 
country as a tyranny and a failure, and all the witnesses against 
it were to be called, mostly swearing if not sworn, and they 
and their able advocates were to have a free, full, unhindered 
hearing. That which could pass unharmed through such an 
ordeal nmst have in it a great preponderance of such pure gold 
as need not to fear the fire. 

The Opposition was not left altogether to the blundering 
devices of the second-rate demagogues and new ambitions which 
nominally controlled its present operations. The brains of the 
old pro-slavery Democracy had ever been supplied by the 
South, for the greater part, and the best inspiration and help 
of its campaign of 1864 came still from Kichmond. 



434 ABEAEAM LINCOLN. 

The very directness and simplicity with whicli the great 
political question of the day was propounded had in it some- 
thing appalling to many men. All idea of change for the sake 
of change, so attractive to the restless and the weary, was shut 
out. The result was to be something as yet unknown, or else 
four years more of Abraham Lincoln. [N'o man was greatly in 
doubt as to what the latter alternative included. He had made 
his purposes clearly understood, and his first pubKc act after 
his nomination was taken unselfishly, without the slightest 
reference to its effect upon his personal popularity. Congress 
passed, in July and just before its adjournment, an Act em- 
bodying an elaborate plan of reconstruction for the seceded 
States, recovered and to be recovered. It provided a system 
of bonds and fetters for the Executive as well as for the re- 
gained areas, and the President refused his approval. It was 
necessary for him to explain his position to the country, and 
he did so, on the 8th of July, in a proclamation. In this he 
embodied the Act, as one of several admissible plans of recon- 
struction, but refused to commit himseK, in advance, to that 
or any other specific mode of procedure, or to set aside the 
State governments already organized in Arkansas and Loui- 
siana. His action called forth very bitter assaults from men 
who had been the active promoters of the Act, in the Senate 
and House of Eepresentatives ; but the acquiescence of the gen- 
eral public in the views of Mr. Lincohi was so plainly mani- 
fested that no great harm was done. The unkindly personal 
nature of some criticisms made by former friends galled him a 
little, but he was absorbed in watching movements of his polit- 
cal enemies which were of a much more perilous and threatening 
character. 

It was manifest to the Richmond managers of the Democratic 
party that there was little hope of successfully opposing a 
renewal of power to the Lincohi Administration otherwise 
than by creating a division among its adherents. For this 
purpose, therefore, they plotted well and wisely. The trap they 



ON TEIAL. 435 

laid was one into whicli an unwary man might easily have stum- 
bled. That the Northern people were weary of the war was 
very obvious. That they would hail with delight any prospect 
of peace was a matter of course. If, therefore, Mr. Lincoln 
could be forced or beguiled into presenting an appearance of 
standing in the way of a restoration of peace, the Democratic 
Convention at Chicago would be provided with a war-cry and 
the Opposition could go before the country with new hope of 
winning the fall elections. 

The country did not contain a purer patriot, with wider in- 
fluence, nor the Eepublican party an abler advocate than 
Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Trihune. He was 
therefore selected as the gateway through which the insidious 
attack could best be made. On the 5th of July a letter was 
sent to Mr. Greeley from a wandering diplomatist named 
Jewett, at Niagara Falls, setting forth that two commissioners 
of the Confederate Government were in Canada, with full powers 
to negotiate a peace. He asked a conference with Mr. Greeley 
or a safe-conduct for the Eichmond men to come to New York. 
Very properly, Mr. Greeley sent the letter to the President, 
with a statement of his own views of the matter and of the 
perils threatening the party and the Administration. He said, 
among other things : "A widespread conviction that the 
government and its supporters are not anxious for peace, and 
do not improve proffered opportunities to achieve it, is doing 
great harm now, and is morally certain, unless removed, to do 
far greater in the approaching election." 

He thus described, with a fair degree of accuracy, the sort 
of mine which the Democratic managers were digging. Mr. 
Lincoln rephed, on the 9th of July : 

" If you can find any person, an}'where, professing to have 
any proposition of Jefferson Davis, in %oriting, embracing the 
restoration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever 
else it embraces, say to him that he may come to me with you." 

Mr. Greeley was again induced to write, on the 13th, that 



436 ABBAHAM LINCOLK 

two persons, duly commissioned and empowered to negotiate 
for peace, were waiting near Niagara Falls for a conference 
with the President or his proper representative ; or they and 
another would come to "Washington for such a conference if a 
safe-conduct were afforded. Their names were given, and 
were such as to make the affair assume a semblance of plausi- 
bihty. 

Other correspondence followed ; a safe-conduct was freely 
offered to any " commissioners" duly empowered as stated in 
the President's first reply ; Major John Hay, one of the Presi- 
dent's private secretaries, was sent to New York and +o Niagara 
Palls with full power in the j^remises ; but the " commission- 
ers" were compelled to acknowledge that they were not accred- 
ited by the Confederate Government. They were a very 
attractive pohtical trap and they were not anything more. A 
very precise statement of the President's position was carried 
to Niagara Falls by Major Hay and was afterwards printed and 
read by the nation. It was addressed to many milhons of 
people, when it was written, quite as much as to any pair or 
trio of rebel negotiators for party capital. It read : 

"Executive Mansion, 
" Washington, July 18, 1864. 
" To whom it may concern : 

" Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, 
the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of sla- 
very, and which comes by and with an authority that can con- 
trol the armies now at war against the United States, will be 
received and considered by the Executive Government of the 
United States, and will be met on liberal terms on substantial 
and collateral points ; and the bearer or bearers thereof shall 
have safe-conduct both ways." 

The commissioners were of course indignant, and said so ; 
and a shght misunderstanding arose between the President and 
Mr. Greeley as to the details of the correspondence and its 



ON TRIAL. 437 

management. Nevertheless the worst of the intended mis- 
chief was prevented, the subtle plot was made a failure, and all 
that could be said and done, before or after election-day, could 
not convince any large number of sound-minded voters that the 
beginning of an offer of actual peace had been made or intend- 
ed. That is, of peace on any such terms as those set forth by 
Mr. Lincoln. The country, as a whole, had finally decided, in 
its heart of hearts, that it was not willing to have any other 
kind of peace, live or die. 

The Opposition made only fairly good profit by its two 
months of preparation, and learned no wisdom at all. When 
its National Convention came together at Chicago, it made 
Governor Seymour, of New York, its presiding officer, and 
Yallandigham, of Ohio, the chainnan of its committee on reso- 
lutions. The latter crept back from liis grotesque banishment 
in the Confederate hues just about in time to frame the plat- 
form of grievances upon which Mr. Lincoln was to be assailed. 

The platform recited duly all known complaints against the 
Administration, and demanded a cessation of hostilities. It 
was a foregone necessity that even such an absurd agglomer- 
ation of discontent should appeal in some way to loyal senti- 
ment, and some loyalty was therefore put in. A further at- 
tempt was made in the nomination of General McClellan as 
the Democratic candidate for President. George II. Pendleton, 
of Ohio, was named for Yice-President, It is only bare jus- 
tice to General McClellan to record that it soon appeared that 
he felt very strangely al)0ut that platform and about his re- 
markable associates and indorsers. He had had liis difiiculties 
with Mr. Lincoln, indeed, and he had views of his own as to 
the management of the war, but he had never done anything 
to entitle or condemn him to rank with the kind of men who 
had been foremost in giving him that nomination. The speedy 
reports of his personal and honorable discontent sent quite a 
large number of sensible voters over to Mr. Lincoln's support. 

The Democratic Convention closed its session with a covert 



438 ABBAHA3£ LINCOLN. 

threat which had a haK-way revolutionary sound and scared 
men away from them. It did not dissolve, as is customary 
with such bodies, but adjourned, " subject to be called at any 
time and place that the National Executive Committee may 
designate." 

Important Union successes in the field aided materially in 
soHdifying the good effect produced by the action of the Demo- 
cratic Convention. Telegraphic reports of victories were un- 
pleasant commentaries upon editorial or other assertions that 
" the conduct of the war by the Lincoln despotism has been and 
is a disgraceful failure." 

It could but be manifest to all that the President had at his 
disposal the enormous and ubiquitous machinery of the gov- 
ernment. The Opposition determined to prop their failing 
fortunes with the assertion that he was using his power as the 
national Executive to secure his own re-election. 

In a reply to a delegation of loyal Marylanders, early in Oc- 
tober, he said : 

" I therefore say that, if I live, I shall remain President un- 
til the fourth of March, and that whoever shall be constitution- 
ally elected in E'ovember shall be duly installed as President 
on the fourth of March ; and, in the interval, I shall do my 
utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage 
shall start with the best chance of saving the ship." 

Now at such a time there might possibly be raised a ques- 
tion as to who, after the votes were counted, was " constitution- 
ally elected." Even in advance it might be effectively charged 
that Mr. Lincoln was already using his power to prevent a con- 
stitutional election. An excellent opportunity for getting a 
little mischief ready beforehand was afforded by the course of 
events in Tennessee. Andrew Johnson, the Pepublican candi- 
date for Vice-President, was military governor of that State, 
in process of reconstruction. The convention called to re- 
organize the State had been composed of unconditional Union 
men, and had provided an oath to be taken by all voters at 



ON TRIAL. 439 

the elections, whicli it also provided for. This was an oath 
of loyalty which could have been trutlifully taken by only 
a small minority of the delegates to the Chicago Convention, 
although it contained no word which could have troubled the con- 
science of any loyal citizen of the United States. The cry was 
loudly raised that this was a trick of the Administration to 
prevent " the McClellan men" of Tennessee from voting. To 
strengthen the cry, a committee of such men was chosen to 
bear a written protest to the President, at Washington. They 
came and he received them, but for once his overtasked pa- 
tience gave way. The committee afterwards reported that 
he received them " roughly." That he even said to their 
chairman : 

" I expect to let the friends of George B. McClellan manage 
their side of this contest in their own way, and I ^\'ill manage 
my side of it in my way." In reply to their demand for an 
answer in writing, as they reported, he said : 

" Xot now. Lay those papers down here. I may or may 
not write something about this hereafter. I know you intend 
to make a point of this. But go ahead. You have my an- 
swer." 

If the report be correct, and it may be, Mr. Lincoln betrayed 
irritation. A pitfall was opened before him and he was asked 
to tumble into it, and there was a lack of courtesy in the man- 
ner of his immediate refusal. Critical people declared that he 
should have rejected the mud-hole with grace and dignity. He 
rejected it, at all events, and with force, in a written commu- 
nication, dated the 22d of October, which left the Opposition 
no profit whatever from that speculation. The McClellan 
ticket was ostentatiously withdrawn from Tennessee, on the 
alleged ground that its supporters there could not take the 
oath. 



ABBAEAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTEE LIII. 

THE nation's verdict. 

The Rebellion Bleeding to Death— A Half a Million More— The Results of 
the Election — Sherman's March to the Sea— The Last Great Battle in 
the West — Changes in the Cabinet — Grant on ' ' Executive Interference." 

The course of the civil war during the summer and early 
autumn of the year ISG'i, studded thickly as it was with bloody 
battles, may be described with fair exactness as a j)rocess of at- 
trition. Both in the East and West, the opposing armies were 
grinding in almost continuous struggle. 

The military results, viewed strictly as such, were in favor 
of the Union armies, and, all the while, the conquered districts 
put behind these in their advances were becoming more and 
more hopelessly lost forever to the Confederacy. One obvious 
fact needed no presentation in any army bulletin. The area 
from which the Eebel forces could draw recruits and supplies 
was steadily narrowing. Whenever their armies now in the 
field should be ground away and used up by the ceaseless cam- 
paigning forced upon them, no others like them could be ob- 
tained to take their places. The end of all drew nearer with 
every charge they made, successful or otherwise, upon the wall 
of steel and fire that was pitilessly closing in around them. 

The resources of the North were not perceptibly diminished. 
A Eebel officer of Texas cavalry, captured and carried to one of 
the forts in 'New York harbor, was paroled late one evening 
and spent the night at the Astor House, on Broadway, in New 
York City. He came out upon the steps of the hotel, after 
breakfast, the next morning, and stood for an hour or so, watch- 
ing the tide of men flow past him. At first he thought it a 



TEE XATION'S VERDICT. 441 

" procession" or the result of some uncommon excitement ; but 
when the truth dawned upon liim that this was only the every- 
day i-ush of the great city, he sat down and wrote to his friends 
at the South : 

'- How they have lied to us ! It is of no use. I give it up. 
There are more men in the Xorth than there were before the 
war. Ours are all gone, and it's about time to stop." 

Mr. Lincoln would gladly have seen the entire South arriv- 
ing at so sensible a decision ; but every faint sign of promise in 
any such direction proved instantly illusory. He was now con- 
tending with the wounded pride, rather than the sane hope or 
expectation, of a group of men in power at Eichmond, whose 
indomitable obstinacy upheld them until the gallant men whom 
they forced to fight for them were uselessly crushed upon the 
last vain battle-fields of the civil war. 

Fully understanding his antagonists, Mr. Lincoln prepared 
for the worst. On the IStli of July he called for five hundred 
thousand more men, the number not furnished by voluntary 
enlistments to be obtained by a draft, after September 5. 
Even his enemies were unable to describe so unpopular an act 
as an electioneering operation in behalf of his re- election. His 
friends told him, plainly, that it might insure his defeat at the 
Kovembcr polls. 

Perhaps he had more correctly gauged the temper and under- 
standing of the people. At all events, the summoned men came 
forward rapidly, a large and valuable percentage of them being 
veterans who had served their time under previous enhstments. 

One after another, every device of the Opposition utterly 
broke do\ni. Even before election-day it was e\adent that no 
danger of Democratic success remained. When the polls were 
closed and the votes were counted, it was found that the coun- 
try contained 4,015,902 voters, the greater part of whom were 
possible fighters. Mr. Lincoln's enormous majority of 411,428 
fairly buried the McClellan electoral tickets. Kentucky and 
Delaware, old slave-States, with New Jersey, feebly testified 



442 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tlieir disgust ■vritli Emancipation, but tliey were of small account 
in an electoral college of 233 votes, wherein 212 were solidly 
against them. There could be raised no question of the " con- 
stitutionality" of such an election. It was the carefully formed 
and solemnly announced judgment of the nation. Mr. Lin- 
coln had taken no especial or undue means to secure the politi- 
cal victory, but it was altogether such as he had confidently 
looked for. It was no surprise to him, and it justified alike his 
faith in God and in the general right-mindedness of his fellow- 
citizens. 

The peojDle breathed more freely after the election, in spite 
of the exciting nature of current news from the army. 

In the very middle of I^ovember began Sherman's " march 
to the sea," and only one month later, with the tidings that he 
had reached the coast, came the defeat and demoralization of 
the last great Kebel army in the "West, at l!^ashville. The fight- 
ing in Virginia had been hard and costly, upon both sides, 
throughout the season. It included the " battles of the Wil- 
derness," the siege of Petersburg, the victories of Sheridan in 
the Shenandoah Valley, and many another fierce collision of 
forces, and it ended with the beginning of the final closing in 
upon Richmond and Lee's army. 

There had been three changes in the Cabinet during the year. 
Mr. Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General, after rendering 
valuable services, had been succeeded by Governor William 
Dennison, of Ohio. Edward Bates, of Missouri, Attorney- 
General, had been succeeded by Mr. Lincoln's old personal 
friend, James Speed, of Kentucky. Salmon P. Chase, Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, had been succeeded by William Pitt Fes- 
senden, of Maine. 

^Neither of these changes originated in the personal will or 
feeling of the President, or implied any dissatisfaction on his 
part with the official conduct of the gentlemen who tendered 
their resignations. The precise causes, in either case, have 
ceased to be important or generally interesting. If there were 



THE NATION'S VERDICT. 443 

peculiar circumstances attending the -vntlidrawal of Mr. Chase, 
connected with the course taken bj his friends prior to the 
Bahimore Convention, all cause for remembering them was re- 
moved by the subsequent action of Mr. Lincoln. Chief -Justice 
Taney of the Supreme Court died on the 12th of October, and, 
after giving a full hearing to all who chose to offer ad\'ice upon 
the subject, the President named IMr. Chase as his successor. 
The possible range of human events could not have offered him 
a better means for testifying his repudiation of personal ani- 
mosity and his keen appreciation of patriotic fidelity and capa- 
city. 

The appointment to the Supreme Court bench of his old and 
tried friend and adviser, David Davis, of Illinois, was in a 
somewhat different way a similar testimonial to personal worth, 
conferred without regard to poHtical or any other influence to 
the contrary. 

If Mr. Lincoln's utterances and letters, during this period, 
continually express his increasing religious feehng and his con- 
fidence in an overruling Pro^^dence, his correspondence with 
army commanders testifies to his belief that the conduct of 
military affairs was at last in the right hands. He had his 
doubts, indeed, as to the wisdom of Sherman's march into 
Georgia, but he refused to interfere. In a letter to General 
Grant he said : 

" The particulars of your plan I neither know nor seek to 
know. You are vigilant and seK-reliant; and, pleased with 
this, I wish not to obtrude any restraints or constraints upon 
you." 

General Grant's reply contained this comprehensive testi- 
mony : 

" From my first entrance into the volunteer seiwice of my 
country to the present day, I have never had cause of com- 
plaint. . . . Indeed, since the promotion which placed me in 
command of all the armies, and in view of the great responsi- 
bility and importance of success, I have been astonished at the 



444 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

readiness with wbieli everything asked for has been yielded, 
without even an explanation being asked." 

How great a relief was thus obtained by the weary Com- 
mander-in-Chief can hardly be estimated. How much he was 
in need of such relief could only be guessed, at the time, by 
those who loved him and narrowly noted the visible signs that 
his iron constitution was beginning to yield to the ceaseless 
drain and strain. 

The overthrow of the KebelHon, the return of peace, might 
possibly bring him easier times. His mind was stronger and 
clearer than ever, and his education was still going steadily for- 
ward ; but his bodily frame was bent and at times it drooped a 
little, for the burdens yet upon him were almost too much for 
human endurance. 



A VALEDICTORY. 445 



CHAPTER LIY. 

A VALEDICTORY. 



Putting Emancipation into the Constitution— Sherman in South Carolina— 
The Peace Conference in Hampton Roads— Useless Bloodshed— The 
Second Inaugural. 

Congress assembled on the 5tli of December, 1864, and tbe 
President sent in his Message the next day. In this he tersely- 
reviewed the military and political position of the country, at 
home and abroad. He called attention to the manifest gains 
of the country in wealth and population, with reference to its 
undiminished ability to continue the war. He urged the adop- 
tion of an Amendment to the Constitution, forever prohibiting 
human slavery in the United States. He declared that the 
Ptebels could at any time have peace by simply laying down 
their arms and submitting to the national authority under the 
Constitution. 

At the previous session of the same Congress an effort to 
provide for such a Constitutional Amendment as" Mr. Lincoln 
advised had failed. The time was not then ripe for it. It 
was now plain to all, however, that the full time had come, 
and the necessary two-thirds vote of the House of Representa- 
tives was obtained with moderate difficulty, the Senate being 
already secure. 

The President publicly declared to a crowd who assembled 
at the White House, to congratulate him, that the Amendment 
seemed to him the one thing needful. It completed and con- 
firmed the work of the Proclamation of Emancipation, if duly 
ratified by the several States. He urged those who heard him 
to go home and see that this was done. 

The war was pressed with untiring vigor, at every point. 



446 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

through the month of December. In January the army 
under General Sherman faced northward, sweeping through 
South Carolina. Charleston fell into its hands like an over- 
ripe apple. [N'o force remained with any power to stand in its 
way, and the Richmond rulers began to reahze that their hour 
was coming. Studying well the terms of peace announced in 
Mr. Lincoln's message to Congress, but not yet comprehending 
them, they determined upon a last effort to save something 
from the impending wreck of the Confederacy. 

An informal conference was obtained, February 3, 1865, 
upon a steamer in Hampton Roads, between the Yice-Presi- 
dent of the Confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. 
Hunter and J. A. Campbell, representing the Richmond 
authorities ; and Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward. The President's 
assent to this interview was given at the request of General 
Grant, but with small hope of profitable results. None such 
were at all possible. ]!^o written propositions were made or 
offered on either side. No formal report of the conversation 
was permitted, but the substance of it was at once made pub- 
lic, both at the North and South. 

The Confederate commissioners desired to obtain a tem- 
porary cessation of hostilities, in the nature of an armistice or 
truce between two independent powers, each reducing their 
armaments and postponing the express terms and conditions 
of a permanent peace and settlement to some future time and 
after further consideration and negotiation. It was argued 
that the passions of the two peoples would thus have time to 
cool, commercial and other relations could at once be resumed, 
and an end could be reached without further bloodshed. 
What the commissioners omitted to urge was that the Rebel- 
lion would thereby gain much more than it could by a sudden 
destruction of Sherman's army, 

Mr. Lincoln's replies were a substantial reproduction of the 
doctrines announced in his message to Congress, with the addi- 
tion of the Constitutional Amendment prohibiting slavery. 



A VALEDICTORY. 447 

The commissioners, sincere as might be their desire to ob- 
tain a season of rest and recuperation for the Confederacy, 
with a covert acknowledgment of its independent, treaty-mak- 
ing existence, or earnest as may have been their personal long- 
ing for peace, were neither prepared nor empowered to nego- 
tiate for a full surrender. The President neither could nor 
would discuss any other proposition than precisely that, for he 
was acting solely as Commander-in-Chief. He really pos- 
sessed no other than strictly military right and power in the 
premises, for it was not a case of a treaty with a foreign power. 

A Georgia newspaper, on the supposed authority of Mr. 
Stephens, reports Mr. Lincoln as declaring that he could not 
recognize another government inside the one of which he alone 
was President. "That," he said, "would be doing what you 
80 long asked Europe to do, in vain, and be resigning the only 
thing the Union armies are fighting for." Mr. Hunter re- 
plied that the recognition of the power of Mr. Davis to make 
a treaty was the first and indispensable step to peace. 

This was a mere play upon words, substituting the idea of a 
" treaty of peace" \x\t\\ the Ptichmond authorities for the other 
idea of a restoration of the peace of the whole country. To 
point his reply, and as offering one precedent of a constitu- 
tional ruler treating with armed rebels, Mr. Hunter cited the 
correspondence of Charles the First of England with the Par- 
liament. The newspaper report says : 

"Mr. Lincoln's face wore that indescribable expression 
which generally preceded his hardest hits ; and he remarked : 
' Upon questions of history I must refer you to Mr. Seward, 
for he is posted in such things, and I don't profess to be ; but 
my only distinct recollection of the matter is that Charles lost 
his head.' " 

There was an old personal friendship between Mr. Lincoln 
and Mr. Stephens, dating ^rom the time when they were mem- 
bers of Congress together, and the conference assumed there- 
from a tone of mutual ease and freedom from constraint ; but 



448 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the gulf was too wide to be bridged and too deep to be filled 
up, and tlie humane desires which led to it suffered their fore- 
doomed disappointment. 

The IS'orthern people understood the matter perfectly, with 
remarkably few exceptions, and there was never an opportunity 
for the Southern people, generally, to know why the awful 
bloodshed of the next few weeks was uselessly insisted upon 
by their obstinate rulers. Peace was not at all denied or with- 
held from them, and there was no attainable object for which 
so many of them should suffer or die. The United States, 
through its President, did but continue its steady denial of the 
existence as a nation, and of the treaty-making independence, 
of the Confederacy. 

For one month more the war went bitterly on, from day to 
day. The end of Mr. Lincoln's first term of office, with the 
beginning of a second term, arrived at 12 o'clock, noon, of the 
4th of March, 1865. The term of Congress also expired, and 
the session with it ; but the President convened the Senate, at 
once, for an " extra session," by proclamation. For a second 
time Mr. Lincoln took the oath of office as President of the 
United States. It was a grand and solemn occasion, full of 
strong and striking contrasts with the same ceremonial, in the 
same place, four years before. 

The crowd which assembled was even larger, this time ; but 
it was a different crowd, with changed hearts and with better 
and higher hopes. The multitude was not the same. The Man 
was the same and yet he was not, for behind him as behind 
them was the fire of the sevenfold furnace through which God 
had led him. I^o smell of burning was upon his garments of 
integrity and faith, but his fetters had been largely burned away. 
He was almost ready to walk out of the furnace and stand 
before the King. The oath of office was administered by Chief- 
Justice Chase ; the President looked out for a moment, silently, 
over the multitude, and then he addressed them, and all other 
men, as follows : 



A VALEDICTORY. 449 

" Fellow-countrymen : At this second appearing to take the 
oath of the Presidential office, there is less occasion for an ex- 
tended address than there was at the first. Then, a statement 
somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and 
proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which 
public declarations have been constantly called forth on every 
point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the 
attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is 
new could be presented. 

"The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly 
depends, is as well known to the public as to myself ; and it is, 
I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. "With 
high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is 
ventured. 

" On the occasion corresponding to this, four years ago, all 
thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending ci^al war. 
All dreaded it ; all sought to avoid it. TThile the inaugural 
address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether 
to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the 
city seeking to destroy it without war — seeking to dissolve the 
Union and divide the effects by negotiation. Both parties 
deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than 
let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather 
than let it perish : and the war came. 

" One eighth of the M'hole population were colored slaves, 
not distributed generally over the Union, but locahzed in the 
southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar 
and powerful interest. AU knew that this interest was some- 
how the cause of the war. To strengthen, extend, and perpet- 
uate this interest was the object for which the insurgents would 
rend the Union even by war, while the government claimed 
no right to do more than restrict the territorial enlargement 
of it. 

" Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the 
duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated 



450 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 

tliat the cause of tlie conflict might cease with, or even before, 
the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier tri- 
umph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. 

" Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and 
each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange 
that any men should ask a just God's assistance in wringing 
their bread from the sweat of other men's faces ; but let us judge 
not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be 
answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The 
Almighty has His own purposes. ' Woe unto the world because 
of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come ; but woe 
unto that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall sup- 
pose that American slavery is one of these offenses, which in 
the providence of God must needs come, but which, having 
continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, 
and that he gives to both Korth and South this terrible war, as 
the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shaU we dis- 
cern therein any departure from those divine attributes which 
the believers in a living God always ascribe to him ? Fondly 
do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of 
war may soon pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue 
until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and 
fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every 
drop of blood drawn vaih. the lash shall be paid with another 
drawn with the sword, — as was said three thousand years ago, 
so still it must be said, ' The judgments of the Lord are just 
and righteous altogether.' 

" With mahce toward none, with charity for aU ; with firm- 
ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 
on to finish the work we are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds ; 
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his 
widow and orphans ; to do all which may achieve and cherish 
a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." 

The inaugural address made a deep impression upon the 
nation. Nothing at aU resembling it had ever been heard before. 



A VALEDICTORY. 451 

A ruler, publicly recei^-ing the trust of four years more of 
power, felt called upon to set before the people the result of 
his profound study and analysis of the Divine Providence, as 
presented in the Scriptures, and to call upon them to join him 
in acknowledging the wisdom and justice of God. He also, 
having many times already called upon them to pray with 
him, deemed it well to refer to the nature of both prayer and 
its answers. As for his policy as a ruler, he was able, in talk- 
ing to such a people, to sum it all up in a condensed paraphrase 
of the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. 

It was not exactly a " state paper," and there was in it a 
strangely solemn and mournful undertone, not so much heard 
as felt. It was a Farewell Address of a man whose work was 
nearly done and who, somehow, was dimly aware of that fact. 

Abraham Lincoln's work was indeed done, for all that even 
then remained \v»s for the hands of others. He had only a few 
short weeks to wait before turning over all his power and re- 
sponsibility and toil to those who were to follow. At the same 
time his education was completed, so far as it could be in this 
present world. His mind and soul had reached theii' full 
development, in a religious life so unconsciously intense and 
absorbing that it could not otherwise than utter itself in the 
grand sentences of his last address to the people. The knowl- 
edge had come, and the faith had come, and the charity had 
come ; and with all had come the love of God, which put away 
all thought of rebellious resistance to the will of God, leading 
as in his earlier days of trial to despair and insanity. 



452 ABRAHAM LINCOLW. 



CHAPTER LV. 

AT LAST. 

A Proclamation of Pardon— Going to the Army — Tlie Death Struggle of 
the Rebellion— Hemmed in by the Hunters — The President in Rich- 
mond-Surrenders of Lee and Johnson — Cessation of the Civil "War. 

Mk. Fessenden retired from the Treasury Department, on 
account of ill-liealtli, on the 6th of March, and Hugh McCul- 
loch, of Indiana, was appointed in his stead ; but no other 
changes were made in the Cabinet. The machinery of the gov- 
ernment was all in good order and worked right on, without a 
pause or a break. There was no occasion for the presence of 
anxious crowds of office-seekers, as in 1861. This was not in any 
wise a new Administration. Nevertheless, for a fortnight, there 
was an increase in the rush and pressure of official duties. In 
pursuance of an Act of Congress, a proclamation was issued, on 
the 11th of March, offering pardon to aU deserters who should at 
once return to their posts. A draft for three hundred thousand 
men more began on the 15th, as if in preparation for possible 
needs of the army. All matters were settled and adjusted, and 
then the President, for the first time, indulged himself in what 
bore a weird and somber likeness to a vacation. On the 22d 
of the month he went down the Potomac to City Point, to be 
with the army during the closing struggles of the war. He 
was very weary, in heart and brain, and he could there escape 
from many of his daily and hourly tormentors. Not even the 
very good people who only desired to see him and shake hands 
with him could all follow him to City Point. 

General Sherman's army reached Goldsborough, North Caro- 
lina, on the 22d, and the General left it there and came up to 
consult as to further operations. 



/I r- 



.':« . ■»*-. -- 




j^S' 



AT LAST. 453 

There Tras to have been a grand review of the troops on the 
23(3, but on that day occurred a desperate battle for the posses- 
sion of Fort Steadman. The Eebels having once taken it, they 
were driven out of it with heavy losses, and Mr. Lincoln visited 
the scene of the combat. The enthusiasm with which he was 
everywhere received by the soldiers enabled him to say, " This 
is better than a review." 

General Sherman arrived and attended a council of war, held 
on the 2Sth, at which were also present Mr. Lincoln and Gen- 
erals Grant, Sheridan, Meade, and Ord. He then shortly re- 
joined his army, and the results of the consultation followed 
with terrific rapidity. The operations under Grant began in a 
few hours after the adjournment of the council. There was 
some sharp fighting on the next day, Wednesday. Thursday 
was so stormy as somewhat to interfere with activity, but 
through Friday, Saturday, and Sunday there was a continuous 
succession of bloody engagements along the entire front. Mr. 
Lincoln remained at City Point, receiving reports of the pro- 
gress-making and sending frequent dispatches to the people. 
On Sunday he was able to announce " the triumphant success 
of our armies, after three days of hard fighting, in which both 
sides displayed unsurpassed valor." 

The results were indeed a triumphant success, for the army 
under Lee had lost one half of its effective men. Twelve 
thousand of them were prisoners in the hands of the victors, 
with fifty pieces of artillery. There was no longer any possi- 
bility of holding Richmond. There had not been any, in 
reality, for a long time, and the most obstinate corn-age was com- 
pelled to admit it now. The evacuation was made by the Eebel 
authorities, civil and military, at once and in haste. What 
remained of the Rebel fleet in the James River was blown up 
before the departure, and as little was left of other war-material 
as the time and opportunity given for destruction or removal 
pennitted. 

The Union troops nearest the city were those under General 



454 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: 

"Weitzel, lying on the nortli side of the James Kiver. On the 
morning of Monday, April 3, the Fifth Massachusetts Cav- 
alry was sent out by General Weitzel to reconnoiter. They 
quickly discovered and reported the flight of the enemy, and 
the city was entered and occupied by a quarter past eight 
o'clock. The wearied, haK-starved people received the Union 
troops with demonstrations of joy. They had had a good deal 
more than enough of Secession and its consequences. 

As soon as possible after receiving the news of the evacua- 
tion of Richmond, and on the same day, Mr. Lincoln made a 
visit to the captured city. General Grant was pushing on 
after Lee with all the forces he could move, and Sherman was 
hurrying up from the South. There remained no imaginable 
loophole for the escape of the last Rebel army, and the war was 
practically over. 

Mr. Lincoln was carried by a war-steamer to a point about 
a mile below Richmond, and the rest of the way in one of the 
steamer's boats. Senator Sumner was with him ; also httle Tad; 
and the sailors who rowed the boat went ashore too, as a kind 
of a suggestion of a body-guard. He did not need any. On 
foot, almost alone, with a dignity of simplicity which became 
him wonderfully well, he passed on from street to street. It 
was something like a dream : and yet all the wild dreams of the 
Confederate leaders had forever vanished in their enforced 
abandonment of that town. He was at once recognized by 
some of the colored people, and the news of his presence 
spread like wildfire. They thronged around him with all the 
extravagant expressions of joy and devotion of which their ex- 
citement made them capable. General Weitzel's men had to 
come and serve as a police force to clear the streets. Men and 
women wept and danced and shouted and praised God. 

The President took his hat off, reverently, and bowed ; but he 
could not speak, for the tears were pouring down his cheeks. 
The Liberator had come suddenly among the people whose 
bonds he had broken and to whom he had opened a hope of 



AT LAST. 455 

free manhood and womanhood in the days that were to be. It 
was an hour worth living and dpng for, and it was given him 
to see it. He returned to City Point that night, but paid the 
city another visit two days later with Mrs. Lincoln and Tad, 
accompanied by Yice-President Johnson and others. Some 
of the more prominent citizens came to see him, at that time, 
to discuss the future of the State of Virginia. Among these 
was Judge Campbell, whom the President had met in the 
peace conference in Hampton Eoads. This gentleman desiTed 
him to authorize the assembling of the State Legislature, that 
by distinct State action the troops of Yirginia might be with- 
drawn from Lee's army and the present condition of afiairs 
accepted. The death of the Kebellion hardly required the ver- 
dict of such a local " coroner's jury" as was thus asked for, 
and the President refused to issue any proclamation in the 
premises. He afterwards, however, wrote to General Weit- 
zel from City Point, instructing him to permit the assembling 
of the legislature. He told him to show the note to Judge 
Campbell, but not to have it made public. The surrender of 
the army under Lee rendered needless any withdrawal of the 
Virginia troops, but, much to Mr. Lincoln's disgust, Judge 
Campbell made public not only the private conversation but 
also the contents of the note to the general. It was made to 
appear as an indication of the President's purposes and policy, 
and it unduly affected the terms made by General Sherman 
with General Johnston, in the surrender of the part of the Kebel 
army commanded by the latter. This made some trouble for 
General Sherman and stirred Mr. Lincoln to a more than ordi- 
nary expression of feeling. 

Here and tliere a few remnants of Confederate forces were 
still in arms, but nowhere was there anything properly to be 
described as an army. Such as they were, the remnants rap- 
idly surrendered or disbanded, and even the guerilla bands 
gave it up. 

Orders were speedily issued from the War Department for 



456 ABBAHA3I LINCOLN. 

the cessation of enlistments and for stopping the operation of 
the draft, with other orders looking to the reduction and even- 
tual disbandment of the armies. 

Military restrictions upon trade and commerce between the 
warring sections were removed as fast as was consistent with 
local requirements. The whole nation awoke to the glad cer- 
tainty that Peace had come, and that it had come to stay, and 
that it had so come as to be worth the having. It had come 
by the forcible and complete restoration of the authority of 
the United States over every part and parcel of its territory 
and population. It had come without treaty, or condition, or 
compromise. All questions of future citizenship, whether of 
rebels recently in arms or of black men recently in bondage, 
were left in the unfettered control of Congress and the Presi- 
dent. There were such questions, truly, and they presented 
momentous problems for statesmen to consider, but the man- 
ner of the closing of the war stripped all such problems of 
artihcial complications and left them in shape and condition 
for swift and sure solution. Mr. Lincoln's views upon the sub- 
ject of universal suffrage were already well known, and he took 
specific opportunities for leaving them on record. His desire 
and hope was that the colored men should become citizens in 
all respects, without even covert reference to the tint of their 
skins. He did not remain long enough to see his wishes grati- 
fied, but there was no doubt in his mind as to the jDolicy to be 
pursued by the government. He well knew that the processes 
required for making good citizens, of even white material, de- 
manded time and opportunity and patient wisdom for the 
production of tolerable results, and he believed that the require- 
ments of the enfranchised race were measurably the same. 
They too would need both time and opportunity and jDatience 
and intelligent help. The supervision of all that work was to 
be put into other hands than his, and already he had done 
what he could. 



PEACE. 457 



CHAPTER LYI. 

PEACE. 

A Rejoicing People— Vanity and Revenge conspire to Commit Murder— 
The ABsassination — The Mourning of a Mighty Multitude — Voices 
from Distant Lands— The Teachings of a Great Life. 

The idea, at times the dread, of Mr. Lincoln's possible assas- 
sination had floated vaguely in the minds of his friends from 
the very hour of his election. It was again and again suggested 
to him in many ways, but he invariably refused to give it a 
serious consideration. 

Threats were so freely made, as the war went on, and those 
around him were so reasonably alarmed, that he was almost 
compelled to justify with argument his utter indifference. Men 
would need motives, he thought and said, for the doing of such 
a deed. " If they kill me, the next man will be just as bad for 
them ; and in a country like this, where our habits are simple, 
and must be, assassination is always possible, and will come if 
they are determined upon it." 

He came and went, attended or unattended, as the case might 
be, with careless freedom, not giving the matter any further 
consideration. 

TVith the collapse of the rebellion and the return of peace, it 
seemed as if all supposable rational motive for assailing the 
President's life had vanished, and with it all peril of his assas- 
sination. 

No words can paint the joy of the nation over the fall of 
Richmond and the surrender of Lee's army. The bells in all 
the steeples rang like mad ; the cannon boomed ; the people 
met in the churches to praise God ; men who did not know 



458 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

each other stopped in busy streets to sliake hands, and turned 
away with streaming eyes ; mothers and widows quieted their 
aching hearts in the thought that their sons and husbands had 
not died in vain ; something of charitable warmth was swelHng 
and reaching out towards the ruined and stricken South. It 
was an hour of the return of peace on earth and good-will to 
men, and any previous suggestion of possible murder was for- 
gotten. 

Kational motives had indeed all passed away ; but men had 
failed to take account of two of the viler and meaner passions 
whereby Hell is represented in the hearts of human beings, — 
Revenge and Yanity. A combination of these in the miuds of 
several men led to a conspiracy for the murder of Mr. Lincoln, 
Mr. Johnson, Mr. Seward, General Grant, and, perhaps, some 
others. It was a very deliberate affair, although miserably 
planned and imperfectly executed. 

The Yice-President escaped unassailed ; Mr. Seward received 
wounds from which he soon recovered ; and the only part of 
the conspiracy which fully attained its purpose was that which 
was put into the base hands of mere vanity in the person of an 
unsuccessful actor named Booth. This man was not a South- 
erner ; he was not a soldier ; he was but a fair representative 
of the meaner, because better educated, IN'orthern " copper- 
head." 

The Confederacy was but recently dead and had not yet 
been buried. The new order of things was not yet under way. 
The President was toiling, day and night, in the settlement of 
numberless important questions. He was not so strong as for- 
merly, and a breath of recreation was more than ever needful. 
He was invited by the manager of Ford's Theater, in Washing- 
ton, to witness the performance of a play known as " Our 
American Cousin," on the evening of the 14th of April. He 
assented, for he was somewhat fond of the drama. He had 
made Shakspeare a study to such an extent that he could sit, 
throughout the most perfect presentation of Falstaff, without 



PEACE. 459 

one smile upon his face, absorbed in the delineation of hnman 
nature by the master, through the actor. 

In the present case he was not eager, kno^ving nothing of 
the plaj ; but he yielded to the wifely urgency of Mrs. Lincoln. 
General Grant was to have been of the party, but had other 
engagements more imperative which called him out of the city. 
Mr. Lincoln passed the day as usual. He made an appointment 
to meet Hon. George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, and Judge 
Charles P. Daly, of New York, the next morning. He never 
wasted much time in dressing, and when Mrs. Lincoln came 
for him he was ready to go with her. They passed on their 
way to take with them Miss Harris and Major Rathbone, 
daughter and stepson of Senator Harris, of New York. It was 
twenty minutes before nine o'clock when they entered the 
crowded theater, and the throng rose and cheered enthusiasti- 
cally as they passed on to the " state box" reserved for them. 

The murder of the President could have been accomplished 
more safely and easily at almost any other time and place, but 
the gratification of diseased vanity and morbid hate required 
publicity. 

John Wilkes Booth, the actor who had selected this for his 
last tragedy, made his preparations for escape with some care 
and cunning, as if unaware that the earth contained no cave 
dark enough to afterwards conceal him. He provided himself 
with a good horse, in waiting at the rear of the theater, on 
which to ride away. He entered, looked in upon the stage 
as if with professional curiosity, and then worked his way 
around into the outer passage leading towards the box occupied 
by the President. 

One of the President's " messengers" was at the end of an 
inner passage, leading to the box-door, for the purpose of pre- 
venting undue intrusions. To him Booth presented a card, 
stating that Mr. Lincoln had sent for him. On that he he was 
permitted to pass. After overcoming this slight barrier there 
remained no hindrance to the commission of the murder, for 



460 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

the President sat quietly in an arm-cliair, entirely absorbed in 
the play. 

Booth had a two-edged dagger and a single-barreled Der- 
ringer pistol, carrying a heavy ball. With the latter he took 
full aim at the back of the head so near him and pulled the 
trigger. The bullet entered the brain, so weary with long toil 
for others : but the President hardly stirred in his chair. The 
report of the pistol rang through the house, but for several 
heart-beats no man seems to have guessed what it meant. 

Major Eathbone was the first to comprehend the matter, and 
he instantly closed with Booth, but was thrown off with a 
wound in his arm from the dagger. 

Freeing liimseK from the grasp of Pathbone, Booth sprang 
to the front of the box and leaped upon the stage below. It 
was but a step down, but his spurs caught in the American flag 
with which the box was draped, and he half fell. Pegaining 
his feet, he faced the audience for a moment, dagger in hand, 
spouting theatrically the State motto of Virginia, " Sic semper 
tyrannis,'''' and added, " The South is avenged !" 

He was familiar -wath the exits of the stage. It was easy to 
dash aside the few bewildered actors and actresses in his way. 
Only one man, a gentleman named Stewart, was quick-witted 
enough to spring upon the stage and follow him, and he was too 
late in doing so. The assassin reached his horse and rode away, 
escaping for the hour, only to be hunted down and shot in a 
burning bam in Maryland, some twelve days after the murder. 

It was all the work of a few seconds. The fact that the 
President had been shot fell upon the audience with awful 
power. Women screamed incoherently or fainted away. Men 
stood white-faced with dismay and wrath, or blasphemed, or 
swore revenge. All was uproar and confusion. 

The leading actress, Laura Keene, stepped to the front of 
the stage and begged the audience to be cahn. Then she en- 
tered the President's box with the water Miss Harris had been 
calling for, and with stimulants. Mrs. Lincoln was at once and 



PEACE. 461 

entirely overcome. She had never shared her hnsband's indif- 
ference to his perpetual peril, but the shock was none the less 
severe when it now smote upon her so suddenly. 

The evil deed had been completely done. Mr. Lincoln was 
unconscious from the moment when the bullet struck him. 
There was little need for the verdict of the medical men who 
gathered so quickly around him, that the hurt was surely fatal, 
and the news went out to the country untempered by any de- 
lusive hope. 

There had been a mutual agreement between the conspira- 
tors as to the time for striking, and the less successful assault 
upon Mr. Seward was made at precisely the same hour. Inci- 
dental circumstances prevented the remainder of the plot from 
even attempted execution. 

The unconscious President was carried to a private residence, 
near the theater ; and here, at twenty-two minutes past seven 
o'clock, Api-il 15, 1865, the last tokens of life disappeared. 

There was bitter grief among the statesmen and generals 
who sobbed around that death-bed. Bewildering and agonizing 
was the sorrow of Mrs. Lincoln and her sons, in the room ad- 
joining. These were of the fallen ruler's flesh and blood and 
life. Those were the associates and co-workers of his long toil 
and trial. It was but natural that they should break down, 
stunned and staggering, under such a blow. The greater mar- 
vel was in the immediate effect upon the nation. It was as if 
there had been a death in every house throughout the land. 

The day before the murder, the North had been rejoicing, 
even beyond the bounds of sober reason. Even the South was 
drawing long breaths of relief and hope. By both sections 
ahke the awful news was heard with a shudder and with a mo- 
mentary spasm of unbelief. Then followed one of the most 
remarkable spectacles in the history of the human race, for 
there is nothing else at all like it on record. Bells had tolled 
before at the death of a loved ruler, but never did all bells toll 
80 mournfully as they did that day. Business ceased, except- 



462 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ing the purchase of crape. Men came together in public meet- 
ings as if by a common impulse, and party lines and sectional 
hatreds seemed to be obliterated. It is true that here and there 
an angry voice called aloud for vengeance. It is true that a 
few bitter-hearted brutes declared their infernal gratification, 
even at peril of their miserable lives. The former calmed 
themselves to learn the holier lessons of the hour, and the lat- 
ter were too few and insignificant to add a black drop of dis- 
grace to the cup of the national sorrow. 

The intelligent people of the Southern States felt that their 
stage-mad " avenger" had inflicted upon them a fresh disaster, 
and they both publicly and privately expressed their anger and 
regret. 

Their feeling is well illustrated by the action of the Masonic 
fraternity in Arkansas, locally known as the " Eeb. Masons." 
They were the first to call and hold a meeting to declare and 
emphasize their condemnation and sorrow, and a hall in Little 
Rock, the State capital, was well filled with those who as- 
sembled. In> large part they were ex-Confederate soldiers, 
many of whom still wore remnants of their army uniforms, 
and they listened to a funeral oration upon Abraham Lincoln 
from the lips of a well-known Union man, of the Masonic fra- 
ternity. It was but twelve hours after the news of the murder 
reached Little Eock by telegraph. 

The assassination took place on Friday evening, and on the 
Sunday following funeral services were held in all the churches 
in the land, and every church was draped in mourning. The 
ingenuity of grief seemed to exhaust itself in vain attempts for 
adequate expression. ]^owhere was there any visible sign of 
disorder. 

A vague dread of what might possibly come turned e^ery 
man into a self-appointed guardian of the public peace, robbed 
of its Constitutional protector. The feeling in the army was 
intense ; but the sternest soldier felt that no act of stupid re- 
venge could honor the memory of a man like Lincoln. N'ot 
one such act was undertaken or committed, then or afterwards. 



PEACE. 463 

The punishment of the conspirators, under due form of law, 
was ordinary justice and not mere vengeance. These were all 
captured and received varying sentences, according to their 
several adjudged degrees of crime. 

After !Mr. Lincoln's death, his body was removed to the 
White House and embalmed. A gathering of Congressmen 
and other public men, at the Capitol, on Monday, made arrange- 
ments for funeral services on Wednesday. Pall-bearers were 
named, and also a Congressional Committee, representing the 
several States, to accompany the remains to their resting-place 
in Illinois. 

The funeral services, on Wednesday, were held in the East 
Room of the Executive Mansion, and from this the coflSned 
body was borne in solemn procession to the catafalque prepared 
for it in the rotunda of the Capitol. Endless crowds had 
poured through the East Room, while the body remained 
tlicre, each passer bending to take a last look at the silent face 
the nation had loved so well. The same sad stream poured on 
through the corridors of the Capitol, for none was willing to 
fail of that final opportunity, and they came from all the region 
round about. 

On the 21st of the month the funeral-train left Washing- 
ton ; and, through all the fifteen hundred miles of its route to 
Illinois, the mournful pageant of its reception by the people 
surpasses all power of words for its description. Slowly the 
train proceeded, from city to city, between almost continuous 
lines of sorrowing multitudes doing last honors to their beloved 
Chief Magistrate, whose hold upon their hearts they had not 
known till they had lost him. 

With the remains of Mr. Lincoln were carried those of his 
beloved son Willie. Father and child had gone Home, for- 
ever, and their earthly bodies were borne homeward side by 
side. 

Springfield, Illinois, was reached on the morning of the 3d of 
May. The grief of Mr. Lincoln's oldest friends and near neigh- 



464 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

bors could hardly exceed that of many who had never heard him 
Titter a word nor at any time had looked upon his living face. 
A day later, in the presence of a great multitude, the coffin 
was placed in a tomb prepared for it in Oak Ridge Cemetery, 
near the city, with appropriate ceremonials and oratory. 

A sort of echo of the J^ational sorrow came back from 
almost every corner of the world, and many of the tones and 
expressions were only less sur^Drising than were their sources. 
America was at once on better terms with Europe, especially, 
all in a day, when the voices of the trans-Atlantic j^ress were 
printed in our own newspapers, side by side with the official 
condolences of foreign potentates. The public uses of the life 
of Mr. Lincoln did not terminate until this last service had 
been effected by his death, and the value of it was by no means 
insignificant. 

This is all. The lessons of such a hfe are very plainly to be 
read. They should be made famihar to the heart and brain of 
every American. Every soul born in the United States, or 
coming to dwell here, should study them well and so learn to 
understand and love the country wherein alone on earth such 
a life is j)ossible. It is a land which has been rich in noble men 
and well-spent lives, both of men and women ; but there has 
been no other just like this. Among all there is not one re- 
corded which is so well adapted to teach and enforce these 
things : that the lowliest may hopefully strive for the highest 
elevation ; that the most ignorant, under every imaginable dis- 
advantage, may successfully seek for knowledge and its uses ; 
that the most skeptical, broken-hearted, hopeless, despairing of 
all men, may go on to do his duty to himseK and others, turn- 
ing his eyes and lifting his hands to God and drawing surely 
nearer to Him. 

Whatever were his failings, faults, and flaws, this was the 
unselfish, truth-seeking and truth-serving life of Abraham 
Lincoln. 



EKKATA. 

In " Table of Contents " (p. 12), and in title of Speech on 
first page of " Appendix " (p. 465), instead of " Delivered at 
Chicago, July 9, 1858," read " Delivered at Springfield, 
Ills., June IT, 1858." 



APPENDIX. 



A FEW PIVOTAL SPEECHES AND LETTERS OF MR. LINCOLN 
ALLUDED TO IN THIS VOLUME. 



SPEECH, 

Delivered at Chicago, July 9, 1858. 

THE FIRST AFTEB ME. LTSTCOLn's NOME^ATION FOE THE UKITED 
STATES SENATORSUIP FROM ILLINOIS. (See Ch. XXIH.) 

Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Convention: — If 
we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, 
we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are 
now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the 
avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to 
slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy that agi- 
tation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. 
In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been 
reached and passed, "A house divided against itself cannot 
stand." I believe this Government cannot endure permanently 
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dis- 
solved, I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will 
cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the 
other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further 
spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the 
belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advo- 
cates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in aJI 
the States, old as well as new, North as well as South. 

Have we no tendency to the latter condition ? 

Let any one who doubts carefully contemplate that now almost 



466 APPENDIX. 

complete legal combination — piece of machinery, so to speak — 
compounded of the Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott decis- 
ion. Let him consider not only what work the machinery is 
adapted to do, and how well adapted; but also let him study the 
history of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if 
he can, to trace, the evidences of design and concert of action 
among its chief architects from the beginning. 

The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more than 
half the States by State Constitutions, and from most of the 
national territory by Con-gressional prohibition. Four days 
later commenced the struggle which ended in repealing that 
Congressional prohibition. This opened all the national terri- 
tory to slavery, and was the first point gained. 

But so far Congress only had acted; and an indorsement by 
the people, real or apparent, was indispensable, to save the point 
already gained and give chance for more. 

This necessity had not been overlooked, but had been provided 
for, as well as might be, in the notable argument of " squatter 
sovereignty," otherwise called " sacred right of self-government;" 
which latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis 
of any government, was so perverted in this attempted use of it 
as to amount to just this: That if any one man choose to enslave 
another, no third man shall be allowed to object. That argu- 
ment was incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the lan- 
guage which follows: " It being the true intent and meaning of 
this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor 
to exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly 
free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own 
way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." 
Then opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of " squatter 
sovereignty," and " sacred right of self-government." " But," 
said opposition members, "let us amend the bill so as to ex- 
pressly declare that the people of the Territory may exclude 
slavery." " Not we," said the friends of the measure; and down 
they voted the amendment. 

While the Nebraska bill was passing through Congress, a law- 
case, involving the question of a negro's freedom, by reason of 
his owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free State and 



APPEIWIX. 467 

then into a Territory covered by the Congressional prohibition, 
and held him as a slave for a long time in each, was passing 
through the United States Circuit Court for the District of Mis- 
souri; and both Nebraska bill and lawsuit were brought to a de- 
cision in the same month of May, 1854. The negro's name was 
"Dred Scott," which name now designates the decision finally 
made in the case. Before the then next Presidential election, 
the law-case came to, and was argued in, the Supreme Court of 
the United States; but the decision of it was deferred until after 
the election. Still, before the election, Senator Trumbull, on the 
floor of the Senate, requested the leading advocate of the Ne- 
braska bill to state his opinion whether the people of a Territory 
can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the 
latter answers: "That is a question for the Supreme Court." 

The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the in- 
dorsement, such as it was, secured. That was the second point 
gained. The indorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular 
majority by nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, per- 
haps, was not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory. The 
outgoing President, in his last annual message, as impressively 
as possible echoed back upon the people the weight and author- 
ity of the indorsement. The Supreme Court met again; did not 
announce their decision, but ordered a re-argument. The Presi- 
dential inauguration came, and still no decision of the court; but 
the incoming President, in his inaugural address, fervently ex- 
horted the people to abide by the forthcoming decision, what- 
ever it might be. Then, in a few days, came the decision. 

The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an early occasion 
to make a speech at this capital, indorsing the Dred Scott decis- 
ion, and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it. The new 
President, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to 
indorse and strongly construe that decision, and to express his 
astonishment that any different view had ever been entertained. 

At length a squabble springs up between the President and 
the author of the Nebraska bill, on the mere question of fact, 
whether the Lecompton Constitution was or was not, in any just 
sense, made by the people of Kansas; and in that quarrel the 
-latter declares that all he wants is a fair vote for the people, and 



468 APPENDIX. 

that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up. I 
do not understand his declai-ation^ that he cares not whether 
slavery be voted down or voted up, to be intended by him other 
than as an apt definition of the policy he would impress upon the 
public mind — the principle for which he declares he has suffered 
so much, and is ready to suffer to the end. And well may he 
cling to that principle. If he has any parental feeling, well may 
he cling to it. That principle is the only shred left of his origi- 
nal Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred Scott decision " squat- 
ter sovereignty" squatted out of existence, tumbled down, like 
temporary scaffolding — like the mold at the foundry served 
through one blast and fell back into loose sand — helped to carry 
an election, and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint 
struggle with the Republicans, against the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion, involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That 
struggle was made on a point — the right of a people to make 
their own constitution — upon which he and the Republicans 
have never differed. 

The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection 
with Senator Douglas's " care not" policy, constitute the piece 
of machinery, in its present state of advancement. This was the 
third point gained. The working points of that machinery are: 

First. That no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and 
no descendant of such slave, can ever be a citizen of any State, 
in the sense of that term as used in the Constitution of the United 
States. This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in 
every possible event, of the benefit of that provision of the 
United States Constitution which declares that " The citizens of 
each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of 
citizens in the several States." 

Secondly. That, "subject to the Constitution of the United 
States," neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature can ex- 
clude slavery from any United States Territory. This point is 
made in order that individual men may fill up the Territories 
with slaves without danger of losing them as property, and thus 
to enhance the chances of permanency to the institution through 
all the future. 

Thirdly. That whether the holding a negro in actual slavery 



APPENDIX. 469 

in a free State makes him free, as against the holder, the United 
States courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the 
courts of any slave-State the negro may be forced into by the 
master. This point is made, not to be pressed immediately; but, 
if acquiesced in for a while, and apparently indorsed by the 
people at an election, then to sustain the logical conclusion that 
what Dred Scott's master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in 
the free State of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do 
with any other one, or one thousand slaves, in Illinois, or in any 
other free State. 

Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the 
Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate and mold 
public opinion, at least Northern public opinion, not to care 
whether slavery is voted down or voted up. This shows exactly 
where we now are; and partially, also, whither we are tendino-. 

It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back, and run 
the mind over the string of historical facts already stated. 
Several things will now appear less dark and mysterious than 
they did when they were transpiring. The people were to be 
left "perfectly free," "subject only to the Constitution." What 
the Constitution had to do with it, outsiders could not then see. 
Plainly enough now, it was an exactly fitted niche for the Dred 
Scott decision to afterward come in, and declare the perfect free- 
dom of the people to be just no freedom at all. Why was the 
amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people, voted 
down? Plainly enough now: the adoption of it would have 
spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision. Why was the 
court decision held up '? Why even a Senator's individual opin- 
ion withheld till after the Presidential election ? Plainly enough 
now: the speaking out then would have damaged the perfectly 
free argument upon which the election was to be carried. Why 
the outgoing President's felicitation on the indorsement? Why 
the delay of a re-argument ? Why the incoming President's 
advance exhortation in favor of the decision ? These things 
look like the cautious patting and petting of a spirited horse 
preparatory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may 
give the rider a fall. And why the hasty after-indorsement of 
the decision by the President and others ? 



470 APPENDIX. 

We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations 
are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed 
timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten 
out at different times and places, and by different workmen — 
Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance — and when 
we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make 
the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortises ex- 
actly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different 
pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece 
too many or too few — not omitting even scaffolding — or, if a 
single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly 
fitted and prepared yet to bring such piece in — in such a case, 
we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Frank- 
lin and Roger and James all understood one another from the 
beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn 
up before the first blow was struck. 

It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska bill, the 
people of a State, as well as Territory, were to be left *' perfectly 
free," " subject only to the Constitution," Why mention a 
State? They were legislating for Territories, and not for or 
about States. Certainly, the people of a State are and ought to 
be subject to the Constitution of the United States; but why is 
mention of this lugged into this merely territorial law ? Why 
are the people of a Territory and the people of a State therein 
lumped together, and their relation to the Constitution therein 
treated as being precisely the same ? While the opinion of the 
court, by Chief -Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the 
separate opinions of all the concurring Judges, expressly declare 
that the Constitution of the United States neither permits Con- 
gress nor a Territorial Legislature to exclude slavery from any 
United States Territory, they all omit to declare whether or not 
the same Constitution permits a State, or the people of a State, 
to exclude it. Possibly, this is a mere omission; but who can 
be quite sure, if McLean or Curtis had sought to get into the 
opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a State 
to exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Mace 
sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the people of a Ter- 
ritory, into the Nebraska bill ; — I ask, who can be quite sure that 



APPENDIX. 471 

it would not have been voted down in the one case, as it had 
been in the other ? The nearest approach to the point of declar- 
ing the power of a State over slavery is made by Judge Nelson. 
He approaches it more than once, using the precise idea, and 
almost the language, too, of the Nebraska act. On one occasion, 
his exact language is, " Except in cases where the power is re- 
strained by the Constitution of the United States, the law of the 
State is supreme over the subject of slavery within its jurisdic- 
tion." In what cases the power of the States is so restrained by 
the United States Constitution is left an open question, pre- 
cisely as the same question as to the restraint on the power of 
the Territories, was left open in the Nebraska act. Put this 
and that together, and we have another nice little niche, which 
we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court de- 
cision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does 
not permit a State to exclude slavery from its limits. And this 
may especially be expected, if the doctrine of " care not whether 
slavery be voted down or voted up" shall gain upon the public 
mind sufficiently to give promise that such a decision can be 
maintained when made. 

Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike 
lawful in all the States. Welcome or unwelcome, such decision 
is probably coming, and will soon be upon us, unless the power 
of the present political dynasty shall be met and overthro^vn. 
We shall lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people of Mis- 
souri are on the verge of making their State free, and we shall 
awake to the reality, instead, that the Supreme Court has made 
Illinois a slave-State. To meet and overthrow the power of 
that dynasty is the work now before all those who would pre- 
vent that consummation. That is what we have to do. How 
can we best do it ? 

There are those who denounce us openly to their own friends, 
and yet whisper us softly that Senator Douglas is the aptest in- 
strument there is with which to efifect that object. They wish 
us to infer all, from the fact that he now has a little quarrel 
with the present head of the dynasty; and that he has regularly 
voted vnXh. us on a single point, upon which he and we have 
never differed. They remind us that he is a great man, and that 



472 APPENDIX. 

the largest of us are very small ones. Let this be granted. But 
" a living dog is better than a dead lion." Judge Douglas, if 
not a dead lion, for this work, is at least a caged and toothless 
one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery ? He don't 
care anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing the 
"public heart" to care nothing about it. A leading Douglas 
Democratic newspaper thinks Douglas's superior talent will be 
needed to resist the revival of the African slave-trade. Does 
Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching ? 
He has not said so. Does he really think so ? But if it is, how 
can he resist it ? For years he has labored to prove it a sacred 
right of white men to take negro slaves into the new Territories. 
Can he possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy them 
where they can be bought cheapest ? And unquestionably they 
can be bought cheaper in Africa than in Virginia. He has done 
all in his power to reduce the whole question of slavery to one 
of a mere right of property ; and as such, how can he oppose 
the foreign slave-trade — how can he refuse that trade in that 
"property" shall be "perfectly free" — unless he does it as a 
protection to the home production ? And as the home pro- 
ducers will probably not ask the protection, he will be wholly 
without a ground of opposition. 

Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully 
be wiser to-day than he was yesterday — that he may rightfully 
change when he finds himself wrong. But can we, for that 
reason, run ahead, and infer that he will make any particular 
change, of which he himself has given no intimation ? Can we 
safely base our action upon any such vague inference ? Now, 
as ever, I wish not to misrepresent Judge Douglas's position, 
question his motives, or do aught that can be personally offen- 
sive to him. Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together 
on principle, so that our cause may have assistance from his 
great ability, I hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle. 
But, clearly, he is not now with us — he does not pretend to be — 
he does not promise ever to be. 

Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its 
own undoubted friends — those whose hands are free, whose 
hearts are in the work — who do care for the result. Two years 



APPENDIX. 473 

ago, the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hun- 
dred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of 
resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance 
against us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, 
we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the 
battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined 
proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all then, to falter 
now? — now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, 
and belligerent ? The result is not doubtful. We shall not 
fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may 
accelerate, or mistakes delay it; but, sooner or later, the victory 
is sure to come. 



n. 

SPEECH, 

Delivered at Cooper Institute. New York, Feb. 27, 1860. (See Ch. XXIV.) 

Mb. President, a>t) Fellow-Citizens of New York: The 
facts with which I shall deal this evening are mainly old and 
familiar; nor is there anything new in the general use I shall 
make of them. If there shall be any novelty, it will be in the 
mode of presenting the facts, and the inferences and observa- 
tions following that presentation. 

In his speech last autumn, at Columbus, Ohio, as reported in 
the New York Times, Senator Douglas said: 

^'Our fathers, ichen they framed the government under ichich 
we live, understood this qicestion just as well, and even better 
than we do noxo.'''' 

I fully indorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this discourse. 
I so adopt it because it furnishes a precise and an agreed start- 
ing-point for a discussion between Republicans and that wing of 
the Democracy headed by Senator Douglas. It simply leaves 
the inquiry: " What was the understanding those fathers had of 
the question mentioned f"* 

What is the frame of government under which we live ? 



474 APPENDIX. 

The answer must be: " The Constitution of the United States." 
That Constitution consists of the original, framed in 1787 (and 
under which the present government first went into operation), 
and twelve subsequently framed amendments, the first ten of 
which were framed in 1789. 

Who were our fathers that framed the Constitution ? I sup- 
pose the " thirty-nine" who signed the original instrument 'may 
be fairly called our fathers who framed that part of the present 
government. It is almost exactly true to say they framed it, 
a^nd it is altogether true to say they fairly represented the 
opinion and sentiment of the whole nation at that time. 

Their names, being familiar to nearly all, and accessible to 
quite all, need not now be repeated. 

I take these " thirty-nine," for the present, as being our 
" fathers who framed the government under which we live." 

What is the question which, according to the text, those 
fathers understood " just as well, and even better than we do 
now" ? 

It is this: Does the proper division of local from Federal 
authority, or anything in the Constitution, forbid our Federal 
Government to control as to slavery in our Federal Territories f 

Upon this Senator Douglas holds the afiirmative, and Repub- 
licans the negative. This affirmation and denial form an issue, 
and this issue — this question — is precisely what the text declares 
our fathers understood "better than we." 

Let us now inquire whether the " thirty-nine," or any of them, 
acted upon this question; and if they did, how they acted upon 
it — how they expressed that better understanding. 

In 1784, three years before the Constitution — the United 
States then owning the Northwestern Territory, and no other — 
the Congress of the Confederation had before them the question 
of prohibiting slavery in that Territory; and four of the "thirty- 
nine" who afterward framed the Constitution were in that 
Congress and voted on that question. Of these, Roger Sher- 
man, Thomas Mifflin, and Hugh Williamson voted for the pro- 
hibition, thus showing that, in their understanding, no line 
dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything else, pro- 
perly forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery 



APPENDIX. 475 

in Federal territory. The other of the four — James M'Henry — 
voted against the prohibition, showing that, for some cause, he 
thought it improper to vote for it. 

In 1787, still before the Constitution, but while the Conven- 
tion was in session framing it, and while the Northwestern 
Territory still was the only territory owned by the United 
States, the same question of prohibiting slavery in the territory 
again came before the Congress of the Confederation; and two 
more of the "thirty-nine" who afterward signed the Constitu- 
tion were in that Congress, and voted on the question. They 
were William Blount and William Few; and they both voted for 
the prohibition — thus showing that, in their understanding, no 
line dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything else, 
properly forbade the Federal Government to control as to 
slavery in Federal territory. This time the prohibition became 
a law, being part of what is now well known as the Ordinance 
of '87. 

The question of Federal control of slavery in the Territories 
seems not to have been directly before the Convention which 
framed the original Constitution; and hence it is not recorded 
that the " thirty-nine," or any of them, while engaged on that 
instrument, expressed any opinion on that precise question. 

In 1789, by the first Congress which sat under the Constitu- 
tion, an act was passed to enforce the Ordinance of '87, includ- 
ing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory. 
The bill for this act was reported by one of the "thirty- nine," 
Thomas Fitzsimraons, then a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives from Pennsylvania. It went through all its stages 
without a word of opposition, and finally passed both branches 
without yeas and nays, which is equivalent to a unanimous 
passage. In this Congress there were sixteen of the thirty-nine 
fathers who framed the original Constitution. They were John 
Langdon, Nicholas Oilman, William S. Johnson, Roger Sherman, 
Robert Morris, Thomas Fitzsimmons, William Few, Abraham 
Baldwin, Rufus King, William Paterson, George Clymer, Rich- 
ard Bassett, George Read, Pierce Butler, Daniel Carroll, James 
Madison. 

This shows that, in their understanding, no line dividing local 



476 APPENDIX. 

from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, pro- 
perly forbade Congress to prohibit slavery in the Federal terri- 
tory; else both their fidelity to correct principles, and their oath 
to support the Constitution, would have constrained them to 
oppose the prohibition. 

Again: George Washington, another of the" thirty-nine," was 
then President of the United States, and, as such, approved and 
signed the bill; thus completing its validity as a law, and thus 
showing that, in his understanding, no line dividing local from 
Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, forbade the 
Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal terri- 
tory. 

No great while after the adoption of the original Constitution, 
North Carolina ceded to the Federal Government the country 
now constituting the State of Tennessee; and, a few years later, 
Georgia ceded that which now constitutes the States of Missis- 
sippi and Alabama. In both deeds of cession it was made a 
condition by the ceding States that the Federal Government 
should not prohibit slavery in the ceded country. Besides this, 
slavery was then actually in the ceded country. Under these 
circumstances, Congress, on taking charge of these countries, 
did not absolutely prohibit slavery within them. But they did 
interfere with it — take control of it — even there, to a certain 
extent. In 1798 Congress organized the Territory of Mississippi. 
In the act of organization, they prohibited the bringing of slaves 
into the Territory, from any place without the United States, by 
fine, and giving freedom to slaves so brought. This act passed 
both branches of Congress without yeas and nays. In that 
Congress were three of the " thirty-nine" who framed the 
original Constitution. They were John Langdon, George 
Read, and Abraham Baldwin. They all, probably, voted for 
it. Certainly they would have placed their opposition to it 
upon record, if, in their understanding, any line dividing local 
from Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, pro- 
perly forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery 
in Federal territory. 

In 1803 the Federal Government purchased the Louisiana 
country. Our former territorial acquisitions came from certain 



APPENDIX. 477 

of our own States; but this Louisiana country was acquired 
from a foreign nation. In 1804 Congress gave a territorial 
organization to that part of it which now constitutes the State 
of Louisiana. New Orleans, lying within that part, was an old 
and comparatively large city. There were other considerable 
towns and settlements, and slavery was extensively and thor- 
oughly intermingled with the people. Congress did not, in the 
Territorial Act, prohibit slavery; but they did interfere with it 
— take control of it — in a more marked and extensive way than 
they did in the case of Mississippi. The substance of the pro- 
vision therein made in relation to slaves was: 

First. That no slave should be imported into the Territory 
from foreign parts. 

Second. That no slave should be carried into it who had been 
imported into the United States since the first day of May, 
1798. 

Third. That no slave should be carried into it except by the 
owner, and for his own use as a settler; the penalty in all the 
cases being a fine upon the violator of the law, and freedom to 
the slave. 

This act also was passed without yeas and nays. In the Con- 
gress which passed it there were two of the " thirty-nine." They 
were Abraham Baldwin and Jonathan Dayton. As stated in 
the case of Mississippi, it is probable they both voted for it. 
They would not have allowed it to pass without recording their 
opposition to it, if, in their understanding, it violated either the 
line properly dividing local from Federal authority, or any 
provision of the Constitution. 

In 1819-20 came and passed the Missouri question. Many 
votes were taken, by yeas and nays, in both branches of Con- 
gress, upon the various phases of the general question. Two of 
the "thirty-nine" — Rufus King and Charles Pinckney — were 
members of that Congress. Mr. King steadily voted for slavery 
prohibition and against all compromises, while Mr. Pinckney as 
steadily voted against slavery prohibition and against all com- 
promises. By this Mr. King showed that, in his understanding, 
no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything in 
the Constitution, was violated by Congress prohibiting slavery 



478 APPENDIX. 

in Federal territory; while Mr. Pinckney, by his vote, showed 
that, in his understanding, there was some sufficient reason for 
opposing such prohibition in that case. 

The cases I have mentioned are the only acts of the " thirty- 
nine," or of any of them, upon the direct issue, which I have 
been able to discover. 

To enumerate the persons who thus acted, as being four in 
1784, two in 1787, seventeen in 1789, three in 1798, two in 1804, 
and two in 1819-20, there would be thirty of them. But this 
would be counting John Langdon, Roger Sherman, William 
Few, Ruf us King, and George Read, each twice, and Abraham 
Baldwin three times. The true number of those of the " thirty- 
nine" whom I have shown to have acted upon the question 
which, by the text, they understood better than we is twenty- 
three, leaving sixteen not shown to have acted upon it in any 
way. 

Here, then, we have twenty-three out of our thirty-nine 
fathers " who framed the government under which we live," 
who have, upon their official responsibility and their corporal 
oaths, acted upon the very question which the text affirms they 
"understood just as well, and even better than we do now;" and 
twenty-one of them — a clear majority of the whole " thirty- 
nine" — so acting upon it as to make them guilty of gross 
political impropriety and willful perjury, if, in their understand- 
ing, any proper division between local and Federal authority, or 
anything in the Constitution they had made themselves, and 
sworn to support, forbade the Federal Government to control as 
to slavery in the Federal Territories. Thus the twenty-one 
acted; and, as actions speak louder than words, so actions, 
under such responsibility, speak still louder. 

Two of the twenty-three voted against Congressional prohi- 
bition of slavery in the Federal Territories, in the instances in 
which they acted upon the question. But for what reasons they 
so voted is not known. They may have done so because they 
thought a proper division of local from Federal authority, or 
some provision or principle of the Constitution, stood in the 
way; or they may, without any such question, have voted 
against the prohibition on what appeared to them to be suffi- 



APPENDIX. 479 

cient grounds of expediency. Xo one who has sworn to sup- 
port the Constitution can conscientiously vote for what he 
understands to be an unconstitutional measure, however expedi- 
ent he may think it; but one may and ought to vote against a 
measure which he deems constitutional, if, at the same time, 
he deems it inexpedient. It therefore would be unsafe to set 
down even the two who voted against the prohibition as having 
done so because, in their understanding, any proper division of 
local from Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, 
forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in 
Federal territory. 

The remaining sixteen of the " thirty-nine," so far as I have 
discovered, have left no record of their understanding upon the 
direct question of Federal control of slavery in the Federal 
Territories. But there is much reason to believe that their 
understanding upon that question would not have appeared 
different from that of their twenty-three compeers, had it been 
manifested at all. 

For the purpose of adhering rigidly to the text, I have pur- 
posely omitted whatever understanding may have been mani- 
fested by any person, however distinguished, other than the 
thirty-nine fathers who framed the original Constitution; and, ■ 
for the same reason, I have also omitted whatever understand- 
ing may have been manifested by any of the " thirty-nine," even, 
on any other phase of the general question of slavery. If we 
should look into their acts and declarations on those other 
phases, as the foreign slave-trade, and the morality and policy 
of slavery generally, it would appear to us that on the direct 
question of Federal control of slavery in Federal Territories, 
the sixteen, if they had acted at all, would probably have acted 
just as the twenty-three did. Among that sixteen were several 
of the most noted antislavery men of those times, — as Dr. 
Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Gouverneur Morris, — while 
there was not one now known to have been otherwise, unless it 
may be John Rutledge, of South Carolina. 

The sura of the whole is, that of our thirty-nine fathers who 
framed the original Constitution, twenty-one— a clear majority 
of the whole — certainly understood that no proper division of 



480 APPENDIX. 

local from Federal authority, nor any part of the Constitution, 
forbade the Federal Government to control slavery in the Fed- 
eral Territories; whilst all the rest probably had the same 
understanding. Such, unquestionably, was the understanding 
of our fathers who framed the original Constitution; and the 
text affirms that they understood the question *' better than we." 

But, so far, I have been considering the understanding of the 
question manifested by the framers of the original Constitution. 
In and by the original instrument, a mode was provided for 
amending it; and, as I have already stated, the present frame of 
" the government under which we live" consists of that original, 
and twelve amendatory articles framed and adopted since. 
Those who now insist that Federal control of slavery in Federal 
Territories violates the Constitution, point us to the provisions 
which they suppose it thus violates; and, as I understand, they 
all fix upon provisions in these amendatory articles, and not in 
the original instrument. The Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott 
case, plant themselves upon the fifth amendment, which provides 
that no person shall be deprived of " life, liberty, or property 
without due process of law;" while Senator Douglas and his 
peculiar adherents plant themselves upon the tenth amendment, 
providing that " the powers not delegated to the United States 
by the Constitution" " are reserved to the States respectively, 
or to the people." 

Now, it so happens that these amendments were framed by 
the first Congress which sat under the Constitution — the identi- 
cal Congress which passed the act already mentioned, enforcing 
the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory. Not 
only was it the same Congress, but they were the identical 
same individual men who, at the same session, and at the same 
time within the session, had under consideration, and in pro- 
gress toward maturity, these Constitutional amendments, and 
this act prohibiting slavery in all the territory the nation then 
owned. The Constitutional amendments were introduced before, 
and passed after, the act enforcing the Ordinance of '87; so that, 
during the whole pendency of the act to enforce the Ordinance, 
the Constitutional amendments were also pending. 

The seventy-six members of that Congress, including sixteen 



APPENDIX. 481 

of the fraraers of the original Constitution, as before stated, 
were pre-eminently our fathers who framed that part of " the 
government under which we live" which is now claimed as 
forbidding the Federal Government to control slavery in the 
Federal Territories. 

Is it not a little presumptuous in any one at this day to affirm 
that the two things which that Congress deliberately framed, 
and carried to maturity at the same time, are absolutely incon- 
sistent with each other? And does not such affirmation become 
impudently absurd when coupled with the other affirmation 
from the same mouth, that those who did the two things alleged 
to be inconsistent understood whether they really were incon- 
sistent better than we — better than he who affirms that they are 
inconsistent ? 

It is surely safe to assume that the thirty-nine framers of the 
original Constitution, and the seventy-six members of the Con- 
gress which framed the amendments thereto, taken together, do 
certainly include those who may be fairly called " our fathers 
who framed the government under which ^e live." And, so 
assuming, I defy any man to show that any one of them ever, in 
his whole life, declared that, in his understanding, any proper 
division of local from Federal authority, or any part of the 
Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control as to 
slavery in the Federal Territories. I go a step further. I defy 
any one to show that any living man in the whole world ever 
did, prior to the beginning of the present century (and I might 
almost say prior to the beginning of the last half of the present 
century), declare that, in his understanding, any proper division 
of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, 
forbade tlie Federal Government to control as to slavery in the 
Federal Territories. To those who now so declare, I give not 
only " our fathers who framed the government under which we 
live," but with them all other living men within the century in 
which it was framed, among whom to search, and they shall not 
be able to find the evidence of a single man agreeing with 
them. 

Now, and here, let me guard a little against being misunder- 
stood. I do not mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly 



482 APPENDIX. 

in whatever our fathers did. To do so would be to discard all 
the lights of current experience — to reject all progress, all im- 
IDrovement. What I do say is, that if we would supplant the 
opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we should do so 
upon evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, that even 
their great authority, fairly considered and weighed, cannot 
stand; and most surely not in a case whereof we ourselves 
declare they understood the question better than we. 

If any man at this day sincerely believes that proper division 
of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, 
forbids the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the 
Federal Territories, he is right to say so, and to enforce his 
position by all truthful evidence and fair argument which he 
can. But he has no right to mislead others who have less access 
to history, and less leisure to study it, into the false belief that 
" our fathers who framed the government under which we live'* 
were of the same opinion — thus substituting falsehood and 
deception for truthful evidence and fair argument. If any man 
at this day sincerely believes " our fathers who framed the gov- 
ernment under which Ave live" used and applied principles, in 
other cases, which ought to have led them to understand that a 
proper division of local from Federal authority, or some part of 
the Constitution, forbids the Federal Government to control as 
to slavery in the Federal Territories, he is right to say so. But 
he should, at the same time, brave the responsibility of declar- 
ing that, in his opinion, he understands their principles better 
than they did themselves; and especially should he not shirk 
that responsibility by asserting that they " understood the ques- 
tion just as well, and even better than we do now." 

But enough ! Let all who believe that " our fathers toho 
framed the government under lohich we live understood this 
question just as well, and even better than we do woto," speah as 
they spoke, and act as they acted upon it. This is all Repub- 
licans ask — all Republicans desire — in relation to slavery. As 
those fathers ^narked it, so let it be again marked, as an evil 
not to be extended, bid to be tolerated and protected only because 
of, and so far as, its actual presence among us makes that tole- 
ration and protection a necessity. Let all the guaranties those 



APPENDIX. 483 

fathers gave it he not grudgingly, hut fully and fairly main- 
tained. For this Republicans contend, and with this, so far as 
I know or believe, they will be content. 

And now, if they would listen — as I suppose they will not — I 
would address a few words to the Southern people. 

I would say to them: You consider yourselves a reasonable 
and a just people; and I consider that in the general qualities of 
reason and justice you are not inferior to any other people. 
Still, when you speak of us Republicans, you do so only to 
denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. 
You will grant a hearing to pirates or murderers, but nothing 
like it to " Black Republicans." In all your contentions with 
one another, each of you deems an unconditional condemnation 
of " Black Republicanism" as the first thing to be attended to. 
Indeed, such condemnation of us seems to be an indispensable 
prerequisite — license, so to speak — among you, to be admitted 
or permitted to speak at all. Now, can you, or not, be prevailed 
upon to pause, and to consider whether this is quite, just to us, 
or even to yourselves ? Bring forward your charges and speci- 
fications, and then be patient long enough to hear us deny or 
justify. 

You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes an issue; 
and the burden of proof is upon you. You produce your proof; 
and what is it ? Why, that our party has no existence in your 
section — gets no votes in your section. The fact is substantially 
true; but does it prove the issue? If it does, then in case we 
should, without change of principle, begin to get votes in your 
section, we should thereby cease to be sectional. You cannot 
escape this conclusion; and yet, are you willing to abide by it? 
If you are, you will probably soon find that we have ceased to 
be sectional, for wc shall get votes in your section this very 
year. You will then begin to discover, as the truth plainly is, 
that your proof does not touch the issue. The fact that we get 
no votes in your section is a fact of your making, and not of 
ours. And if there be fault in that fact, that fault is primarily 
yours, and remains so until you show that we repel you by some 
wrong principle or practice. If we do repel you by any wrong 
principle or practice, the fault is ours; but this brings you to 



484 APPENDIX. 

-where you ought to have started — to a discussion of the right or 
wrong of our principle. If our principle, put in practice, would 
wrong your section for the benefit of ours, or for any other 
object, then our principle, and we with it, are sectional, and are 
justly opposed and denounced as such. Meet us, then, on the 
question of whether our principle, put in practice, would wrong 
your section; and so meet us as if it were possible that some- 
thing may be said on our side. Do you accept the challenge ? 
No! Then you really believe that the principle which "our 
fathers who framed the government under which we live" 
thought so clearly right as to adopt it, and indorse it again and 
again, upon their official oaths, is in fact so clearly wrong as to 
demand your condemnation without a moment's consideration. 

Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning against 
sectional parties given by Washington in his Farewell Address. 
Less than eight years before Washington gave that warning, he 
had, as President of the United States, approved and signed an 
act of Congress enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the 
Northwestern Territory, which act embodied the policy of the 
government upon that subject up to, and at, the very moment 
he penned that warning; and about one year after he penned it, 
he wrote La Fayette that he considered that prohibition a wise 
measure, expressing in the same connection his hope that we 
should at some time have a confederacy of free States. 

Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has since 
arisen upon this same subject, is that warning a weapon in your 
hands against us, or in our hands against you ? Could Wash- 
ington himself speak, would he cast the blame of that sectional- 
ism upon us, who sustain his policy, or upon you, who repudiate 
it ? We respect that warning of Washington, and we commend 
it to you, together with his example pointing to the right appli- 
cation of it. 

But you say you are conservative — eminently conservative — 
while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the 
sort. What is conservatism ? Is it not adherence to the old 
and tried, against a new and untried? We stick to, contend 
for, the identical old policy on the point in controversy which 
was adopted by " our fathers who framed the government under 



APPENDIX. 485 

•which we live;" while you with one accord reject, and scout, 
and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting some- 
thing new. True, you disagree among yourselves as to what 
that substitute shall be. You are divided on new propositions 
and plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and denouncing 
the old policy of the fathers. Some of you are for reviving the 
foreign slave-trade; some for a Congressional Slave-Code for 
the Territories; some for Congress forbidding the Territories 
to prohibit slavery within their limits; some for maintaining 
slavery in the Territories through the judiciary; some for the 
" gur-reat pur-rinciple" that "if one man would enslave another, 
no third man should object," fantastically called " Popular Sov- 
ereignty;" but never a man among you in favor of Federal pro- 
hibition of slavery in Federal Territories, according to the 
practice of "our fathers who framed the government under 
which we live." Not one of all your various plans can show a 
precedent or an advocate in the century within which our gov- 
ernment originated. Consider, then, whether your claim of 
conservatism for yourselves, and your charge of destructiveness 
against us, are based on the most clear and stable foundations. 

Again: you say we have made the slavery question more 
prominent than it formerly was. We deny it. We admit that 
it is more prominent, but we deny that we made it so. It was 
not we, but you, who discarded the old policy of the fathers. 
We resisted, and still resist your innovation; and thence comes 
the greater prominence of the question. Would you have that 
question reduced to its former proportions ? Go back to that 
old policy. What has been will be again, under the same con- 
ditions. If you would have the peace of the old times, readopt 
the precepts and policy of the old times. 

You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves. 
We deny it; and what is your proof? Harper's Ferry! John 
Brown ! ! John Brown Avas no Republican ; and you have failed 
to implicate a single Republican in his Harper's Ferry enter- 
prise. If any member of our party is guilty in that matter, you 
know it or you do not know it. If you do know it, you are 
inexcusable for not designating the man and proving the fact. 
If you do not know it, you are inexcusable for asserting it, and 



486 APPENDIX. 

especially for persisting in the assertion after you have tried 
and failed to make the proof. You need not be told that per- 
sisting in a charge which one does not know to be true is simply 
malicious slander. 

Some of you admit that no Republican designedly aided or 
encouraged the Harper's Ferry affair; but still insist that our 
doctrines and declarations necessarily lead to such results. We 
do not believe it. We know we hold to no doctrine, and make 
no declaration, which were not held to and made by " our 
fathers who framed the government under which we live." 
You never dealt fairly by us in relation to this affair. When it 
occurred, some important State elections were near at hand, and 
you were in evident glee with the belief that, by charging the 
blame upon us, you could get an advantage of us in those elec- 
tions. The elections came, and your expectations were not 
quite fulfilled. Every Republican man knew that, as to himself 
at least, your charge was a slander, and he was not much 
inclined by it to cast his vote in your favor. Republican doc- 
trines and declarations are accompanied with a continued pro- 
test against any interference whatever with your slaves, or with 
you about your slaves. Surely, this does not encourage them to 
revolt. True, we do, in common with " our fathers who framed 
the government under which we live," declare our belief that 
slavery is wrong; but the slaves do not hear us declare even 
this. For anything we say or do, the slaves would scarcely 
know there is a Republican party. I believe they would not, in 
fact, generally know it but for your misrepresentations of us in 
their hearing. In your political contests among youl-selves, 
each faction charges the other with sympathy with Black Re- 
publicanism; and then, to give point to the charge, defines 
Black Republicanism to simj^ly be insurrection, blood, and 
thunder among the slaves. 

SNve-insurrections are no more common now than they were 
before the Republican party was organized. What induced the 
Southampton insurrection, twenty-eight years ago, in which at 
least three times as many lives were lost as at Harper's Ferry ? 
You can scarcely stretch your very elastic fancy to the conclu- 
sion that Southampton was "got up by Black Republicanism." 



APPENDIX. 487 

In the present state of things in the United States, I do not 
think a general or even a very extensive slave-insurrection is 
possible. The indispensable concert of action cannot be 
attained. The slaves have no means of rapid communication; 
nor can incendiary freemen, black or white, supply it. The 
explosive materials are everywhere in parcels; but there neither 
are, nor can be supplied, the indispensable connecting-trains. 

Much is said by Southern people about the affection of slaves 
for their masters and mistresses; and a part of it, at least, is 
true. A plot for an uprising could scarcely be devised and com- 
municated to twenty individuals before some one of them, to 
eave the life of a favorite master or mistress, would divulge it. 
This is the rule; and the slave-revolution in Hayti was not an 
exception to it, but a case occurring under peculiar circum- 
stances. The gunpowder-plot of British history, though not 
connected with slaves, was more in point. In that case, only 
about twenty were admitted to the secret; and yet one of them, 
in his anxiety to save a friend, betrayed the plot to that friend, 
and, by consequence, averted the calamity. Occasional poison- 
ings from the kitchen, and open or stealthy assassinations in the 
field, and local revolts, extending to a score or so, will continue 
to occur as the natural results of slavery; but no general insur- 
rection of slaves, as I think, can happen in this country for a 
long time. Whoever much fears or much hopes for such an 
event will be alike disappointed. 

In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many years ago, " It 
is still in our power to direct the process of emancipation and 
deportation peaceably, and in such slow degrees as that the evil 
will wear off insensibly; and their places be, jx^^fi passu, filled 
up by free white laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to 
force itself on, human nature must shudder at the prospect 
held up." 

Mr. Jefferson did not mean to say, nor do I, that the power 
of emancipation is in the Federal Government. He spoke of 
Virginia; and, as to the power of emancipation, I speak of the 
slave-holding States only. The Federal Government, however, 
as we insist^ has the power of restraining the extension of the 
institution — the power to insure that a slave-insurrection shall 



488 APPENDIX. 

never occur on any American soil which is now free from 
slavery. 

John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave- insur- 
rection. It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt 
among slaves, in which the slaves refused to participate. In 
fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with all their ignorance, 
saw plainly enough it could not succeed. That affair, in its 
philosophy, corresponds with the many attempts related in his- 
tory at the assassination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast 
broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself 
commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the 
attempt, which ends in little else than his own execution. 
Orsini's attemi^t on Louis Napoleon and John Brown's attempt 
at Harper's Ferry were, in their philosophy, precisely the same. 
The eagerness to east blame on old England in the one case, and 
on New England in the other, does not disprove the sameness of 
the two things. 

And how much would it avail you, if you could, by the use of 
John Brown, Helper's Book, and the like, break up the Repub- 
lican organization ? Human action can be modified to some 
extent, but human nature cannot be changed. There is a judg- 
ment and a feeling against slavery in this nation which cast at least 
a million and a half of votes. You cannot destroy that judgment 
and feeling — that sentiment — by breaking up the political organ- 
ization which rallies around it. You can scarcely scatter and 
disperse an army which has been formed into order in the face 
of your heaviest fire; but if you could, how much would you 
gain by forcing the sentiment which created it out of the peace- 
ful channel of the ballot-box into some other channel ? What 
would that other channel probably be ? Would the number of 
John Browns be lessened or enlarged by the operation ? 

But you will break up the Union rather than submit to a 
denial of your Constitutional rights. 

That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be palli- 
ated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, by the mere force 
of numbers, to deprive you of some right plainly written down 
in the Constitution. But we are proposing no such thing. 

When you make these declarations, you have a specific and 



APPENDIX. 489 

well-understood allusion to an assumed Constitutional right of 
yours to take slaves into the Federal Territories, and to hold 
them there as property. But no such right is specifically writ- 
ten in the Constitution. That instrument is literally silent 
about any such right. "We, on the contrary, deny that such a 
right has any existence in the Constitution, even by implica- 
tion. 

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is, that you will destroy 
the government unless you be allowed to construe and enforce 
the Constitution as you please on all points in dispute between 
you and us. You will rule or ruin, in all events. 

This, plainly stated, is your language. Perhaps you will say 
the Supreme Court has decided the disputed Constitutional 
question in your favor. Not quite so. But, waiving the law- 
yer's distinction between dictum and decision, the Court have 
decided the question for you in a sort of way. The Court have 
substantially said, it is your Constitutional right to take slaves 
into the Federal Territories, and to hold them there as property. 
AVhen I say the decision was made in a sort of way, I mean it 
was made in a divided Court, by a bare majority of the judges, 
and they not quite agreeing with one another in the reasons for 
making it; that it is so made as that its avowed supporters dis- 
agree with one another about its meaning, and that it was 
mainly based upon a mistaken statement of fact — the statement 
in the opinion tliat " the right of property in a slave is distinctly 
and expressly affirmed in the Constitution." 

An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of 
property in a slave is not " distinctly and expressly aflirmed " in 
it. Bear in mind, the judges do not pledge their judicial 
opinion that such right is impliedly aflftrmed in the Constitution; 
but they pledge their veracity that it is " distinctly and express- 
bf affirmed there—" distinctly," that is, not mingled with any- 
thing else; "expressly," that is, in words meaning just that, 
without the aid of any inference, and susceptible of no other 
meaning. 

If they had only pledged their judicial opinion that such right 
is affirmed in the instrument by implication, it would be open to 
others to show that neither the word " slave" nor " slavery" is 



490 APPENDIX. 

to be found in the Constitution, nor the word " property," even, 
in any connection with language alluding to the things slave 
or slavery; and that wherever in that instrument the slave is 
alluded to, he is called a "person;" and wherever his master's 
legal right in relation to him is alluded to, it is spoken of as 
"service or labor which may be due," — as a debt payable in 
service or labor. Also, it would be open to show, by contempo- 
raneous history, that this mode of alluding to slaves and slavery, 
instead of speaking of them, was employed on purpose to exclude 
from the Constitution the idea that there could be property in 
man. 

To show all this is easy and certain. 

When this obvious mistake of the judges shall be brought to 
their notice, is it not reasonable to expect that they will with- 
draw the mistaken statement, and reconsider the conclusion 
based upon it ? 

And then it is to be remembered that "our fathers who 
framed the government under which we live" — the men who 
made the Constitution — decided this same Constitutional ques- 
tion in our favor, long ago: decided it without division among 
themselves when making the decision; without division among 
themselves about the meaning of it after it was made, and, so 
far as any evidence is left, without basing it upon any mistaken 
statement of facts. 

Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourselves 
justified to break up this government, unless such a court 
decision as yours is shall be at once submitted to as a conclusive 
and final rule of political action ? But you will not abide the 
election of a Republican President ! In that supposed event, 
you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the 
great crime of having destroyed it Avill be upon us ! That is 
cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters 
through his teeth, " Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and 
then you will be a murderer !" 

To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my money — 
was my own; and I had a clear right to keep it. But it was no 
more my own than my vote is my own; and the threat of death 
to me to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the 



APPENDIX. 491 

Union to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in prin- 
ciple. 

A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly desirable 
that all parts of this great confederacy shall be at peace, and 
in harmony one with another. Let us Eepublicans do our part 
to have it so. Even though much provoked, let us do nothing 
through passion and ill-temper. Even though the Southern 
pjeople toill not so much as listen to us, let 2cs calmly consider 
their demands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate vieio of 
our duty, toe possibly can. Judging by all they say and do, and 
by the subject and nature of their controversy with us, let us 
determine, if we can, what will satisfy them. 

Will they be satisfied if the Territories be unconditionally 
surrendered to them? We know they will not. In all their 
present complaints against us, the Territories are scarcely men- 
tioned. Invasions and insurrections are the rage now. Will it 
satisfy them if, in the future, we have nothing to do with 
invasions and insurrections? We know it will not. We so 
know, because we know we never had anything to do with in- 
vasions and insurrections; and yet this total abstaining does not 
exempt us from the charge and the denunciation. 

The question recurs, What will satisfy them? Simply this: 
We must not only let them alone, but we must, somehow, con- 
vince them that we do let them alone. This, we know by expe- 
rience, is no easy task. We have been so trying to convince 
them from the very beginning of our organization, but with no 
success. In all our platforms and speeches we have constantly 
protested our purpose to let them alone; but this has had no 
tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing to convince them 
is the fact that they have never detected a man of us in any 
attempt to disturb them. 

These natural and apparently adequate means all failing, 
what will convince them? This, and this only: cease to call 
slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this 
must be done thoroughly — done in acts as well as in vwrds. 
Silence will not be tolerated: we must place ourselves avow- 
edly with them. Senator Douglas's new sedition-law must 
be enacted and enforced, suppressing all declarations that 



492 APPENDIX. 

slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, 
or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves 
with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our free-State Con- 
stitutions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all 
taint of opposition to slavery, before they will cease to believe 
that all their troubles proceed from us. 

I am quite aware they do not state their case precisely in this 
way. Most of them would probably say to us, " Let us alone, 
do nothing to us, and my what you please about slavery." But 
we do let them alone — have never disturbed them; so that, after 
all, it is what we say which dissatisfies them. They will con- 
tinue to accuse us of doing until we cease saying. 

I am also aware they have not as yet, in terms, demanded the 
overthrow of our free-State Constitutions. Yet those Constitu- 
tions declare the wrong of slavery, with more solemn emphasis 
than do all other sayings against it; and when all these other 
sayings shall have been silenced, the overthrow of these Consti- 
tutions will be demanded, and nothing be left to resist the 
demand. It is nothing to the contrary, that they do not demand 
the whole of this just now. Demanding what they do, and for 
the reason they do, they can voluntarily stop nowhere short 
of this consummation. Holding as they do that slavery is 
morally right and socially elevating, they cannot cease to 
demand a full national recognition of it, as a legal right and a 
social blessing. 

Nor can w^e justifiably withhold this on any ground save our 
conviction that slavery is wrong. If slavery is right, all words, 
acts, laws, and constitutions against it are themselves wrong, 
and should be silenced and swept away. If it is right, we can- 
not justly object to its nationality — its universality; if it is 
wrong, they cannot justly insist upon its extension — its enlarge- 
ment. All they ask we could readily grant, if we thought 
slavery right; all we ask they could as readily grant, if they 
thought it wrong. Their thinking it right, and our thinking it 
wrong, is the precise fact upon which depends the whole con- 
troversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to blame 
for desiring its full recognition, as being right; but, thinking it 
wrong, as we do, can we yield to them ? Can we cast our votes 



APPENDIX. 493 

with their view and against our own ? In view of our moral, 
cocial, and political responsibilities, can we do this ? 

Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone 
where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising 
from its actual presence in the nation; but can we, while our 
votes Avill prevent it, allow it to spread into the National Terri- 
tories, and to overrun us here in these free States ? If our 
sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty fear- 
lessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those 
sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied 
and belabored — contrivances such as groping for some middle 
ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for 
a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man; such 
as a policy of " don't care" on a question about which all true 
men do care; such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men 
to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, 
not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance; such as invoca- 
tions to "Washington, imploring men to unsay what Washington 
said, and undo what Washington did. 

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations 
against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to 
the government or of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have 

FAITH THAT RiGHT MAKES MlGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH LET US, 
TO THE EXD, DAKE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT. 



m. 

LETTER, 

TO THE UNCONDITIONAL UNION MEN. 

(See Ch. XLIX.) ^ 

Executive MANSiON.-r- 
"Washington, August 26, 1863. 
Hon. James C. ConJcling. 

My DEAR Sir: Your letter inviting me to attend a mass- 
meeting of unconditional Union men, to be held at the capital 
of Illinois, on the 3d day of September, has been received. It 



494 APPENDIX. 

would be very agreeable for me thus to meet my old friends at 
my own home; but I cannot just now be absent from here so 
long as a visit there would require. 

The meeting is to be of all those who maintain unconditional 
devotion to the Union; and I am sure that my old political 
friends will thank me for tendering, as I do, the nation's grati- 
tude to those other noble men whom no partisan malice or parti- 
san hope can make false to the nation's life. 

There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I 
would say: You desire peace, and you blame me that we do not 
have it. But how can we attain it ? There are but three con- 
ceivable ways. First, to suppress the rebellion by force of 
arms. This I am trying to do. Are you for it ? If you are, so 
far we are agreed. If you are not for it, a second way is to give 
up the Union. I am against this. Are you for it ? If you are, 
you should say so plainly. If you are not ior force, nor yet for 
dissolution, there only remains some imaginable compro7nise. 

I do not believe that any compromise embracing the mainte- 
nance of the Union is now possible. All that I learn leads to a 
directly opposite belief. The strength of the rebellion is its 
military, its army. That army dominates all the country, and 
all the people, within its range. Any offer of terms made by 
any man or men within that range, in opposition to that army, 
is simply nothing for the present; because such man or men 
have no power whatever to enforce their side of a compromise, 
if one were made with them. 

To illustrate: Suppose refugees from the South and peace 
men of the North get together in convention, and frame and 
proclaim a compromise embracing a restora,tion of the Union. 
In what way can that compromise be used to keep Lee's army 
out of Pennsylvania ? Meade's army can keep Lee's army out of 
Pennsylvania, and, I think, can ultimately drive it out of exist- 
ence. But no paper compromise to which the controllers of 
Lee's army are not agreed can at all affect that army. In an 
effort at such compromise we would waste time, which the 
enemy would improve to our disadvantage; and that would 
be all. 

A compromise, to be effective, must be made either with 



APPENDIX. 495 

those who control the rebel army, or with the people, first liber- 
ated from the domination of that army by the success of our 
own army, Xow, allow me to assure you that no word or inti- 
mation from that rebel army, or from any of the men control- 
ling it, in relation to any peace compromise, has ever come to 
my knowledge or belief. All charges and insinuations to the 
contrary are deceptive and groundless. And I promise you 
that if any such proposition shall hereafter come, it shall not be 
rejected and kept a secret from you. I freely acknowledge 
myself to be the servant of the people, according to the bond of 
service, the United States Constitution; and that, as such, I am 
responsible to them. 

But to be plain. You are dissatisfied with me about the 
negro. Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between 
you and myself upon that subject. I certainly wish that all 
men could be free, while you, I suppose, do not. Yet I have 
neither adopted nor proposed any measure which is not consist- 
ent with even your view, provided that you are for the Union. 
I suggested compensated emancipation; to which you replied 
you wished not to be taxed to buy negroes. But I had not 
asked you to be taxed to buy negroes, except in such way as to 
save you from greater taxation to save the Union exclusively by 
other means. 

You dislike the Emancipation Proclamation, and perhaps 
would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional. I 
think differently. I think the Constitution invests its Com- 
mander-in-Chief with the law of war in time of war. The most 
that can be said, if so much, is, that slaves are property. Is 
there, has there ever been, any question that by the law of war, 
property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when 
needed ? And is it not needed whenever it helps us and hurts 
the enemy ? Armies, the world over, destroy enemies' property 
when they cannot use it; and even destroy their own to keep it 
from the enemy. Civilized belligerents do all in their power to 
help themselves or hurt the enemy, except a few things regarded 
as barbarous or cruel. Among the exceptions are the massacre 
of vanquished foes and non-combatants, male and female. 

But the Proclamation, as law, either is valid or is not valid. 



496 APPENDIX. 

If it is not valid, it needs no retraction. If it is valid, it cannot 
be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life. 
Some of you profess to think its retraction would operate favor- 
ably for the Union. Why better after the retraction than 
before the issue ? There was more than a year and a half of 
trial to suppress the rebellion before the Proclamation was 
issued, the last one hundred days of which passed under an 
explicit notice that it was coming, unless averted by those in 
revolt returning to their allegiance. The war has certainly 
progressed as favorably for us since the issue of the Proclama- 
tion as before. 

I know, as fully as one can know the opinions of others, that 
some of the commanders of our armies in the field, who have 
given us our most important victories, believe the Emancipation 
policy and the use of colored troops constitute the heaviest 
blows yet dealt to the rebellion, and that at least one of those 
important successes could not have been achieved when it was 
but for the aid of black soldiers. 

Among the commanders who hold these views are some who 
have never had any affinity with what is called " Abolitionism," 
or with " Republican party politics," but who hold them purely 
as military opinions. I submit their opinions as entitled to some 
weight against the objections often urged that emancipation 
and arming the blacks are unwise as military measures, and 
were not adopted as such in good faith. 

You say that you will not fight to free negroes. Some of 
them seem willing to fight for you; but no matter. Fight you, 
then, exclusively to save the Union. I issued the Proclamation 
on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you 
shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge 
you to continue fighting, it will be an apt time then for you to 
declare you will not fight to free negroes. I thought that in 
your struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the negroes 
should cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the 
enemy in his resistance to you. Do you think differently ? I 
thought that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, 
leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the 
Union. Does it appear otherwise to you ? But negroes, like 



APPEKDIX. 497 

other people, act upon motives. Why should they do anything 
for us if we \nll do nothing for them ? If they stake their lives 
for us they must be prompted by the strongest motive, even the 
promise of freedom. And the promise, being made, must be kept. 

The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes 
unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it; nor 
yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up they met New 
England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their way right 
and left. The sunny South, too, in more colors than one, also 
lent a helping hand. On the spot, their part of the history was 
jotted down in black and white. The job was a great national 
one, and let none be slighted who bore an honorable part in it. 
And while those who have cleared the great river may well be 
proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say that anything has 
been more bravely and well done than at Antietam, Murfrees- 
borough, Gettysburg, and on many fields of less note. Nor must 
Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten. At all the watery margins 
they have been present, not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, 
and the rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and 
wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been and 
made their tracks. Thanks to all. For the great Republic; 
for the principle it lives by and keeps alive; for man's vast 
future — thanks to all. 

Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will 
come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the 
keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that 
among freemen there can be no successful appeal from the ballot 
to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure to 
lose their case and pay the cost. And there will be some black 
men who can remember that with silent tongue, and clinched 
teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped 
mankind on to this great consummation, while I fear there will 
be some white ones unable to forget that with malignant heart 
and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it. 

Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy, final triumph. 
Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never 
doubting that a just God, in His own good time, will give us 
the rightful result. 

Yours, very truly, A. Lincoln. 



498 APPENDIX. 

rv. 

LETTER, 

CONCEENTNG THE GOVERNMENT'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS SLAVERY. 

(See Ch. XLI.) 

Governor Bramlette and some other Kentucky gentlemen 
having called upon the President in relation to the draft in 
Kentucky, the following letter from the President was called 
forth by the conversation which then ensued: 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, April 4, 1864. 

A. Q. Hodges, Esq., Franhfort, Ky. 

My dear Sir: You ask me to put in writing the substance of 
what I verbally said the other day, in your presence, to Gov- 
ernor Bramlette and Senator Dixon. It was about as follows: 

" I am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, noth- 
ing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and 
feel, and yet I have never understood that the Presidency con- 
ferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this 
judgnient and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, 
to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Con- 
stitution of the TJnited States. I could not take the office with- 
out taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an 
oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I 
understood, too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath 
even forbade me to practically indulge my primary abstract 
judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had publicly 
declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, 
to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my 
abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, 
however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best 
of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by 
every indispensable means, that government — that nation, of 
which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible 
to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution ? By gen- 



APPENDIX. 499 

eral law, life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must 
be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to 
save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional 
might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the preserva- 
tion of the Constitution, through the preservation of the nation. 
Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I 
could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to 
preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery or any minor mat- 
ter, I should permit the wreck of government, country, and Con- 
stitutional together. When, early in the war. General Fremont 
attempted military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not 
then think it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, 
General Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming 
of the blacks, I objected, because I did not yet think it an indis- 
pensable necessity. When, still later. General Hunter attempted 
military emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet 
think the indispensable necessity had come. When, in March, 
and May, and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals 
to the border-States to favor compensated emancipation, I 
believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation 
and arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that 
measure. They declined the proposition, and I was, in my best 
judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the 
Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying strong hand 
upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In choosing it, 
I hoped for greater gain than loss, but of this I was not entirely 
confident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it in 
our foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, none 
in our white military force, no loss by it anyhow or anywhere. 
On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite a hundred and thirty 
thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable 
facts, about which, as facts, there can be no caviling. We have 
the men, and we could not have had them without the measure. 
" And now let any Union man who complains of the measure 
test himself by writing down in one line that he is for subduing 
the rebellion by force of arms, and in the next that he is for 
taking three hundred and thirty thousand men from the Union 
side and placing them where they would be best for the measure 



500 APPENDIX. 

lie condemns. If he cannot face Hs case so stated, it is only 
because he cannot face the truth." 

I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In 
telling this tale, I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity, I 
claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that 
events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' strug- 
gle, the nation's condition is not what either party, or any man, 
devised or expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is 
tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great 
wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of 
the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, 
impartial history will find therein new causes to attest and 
revere the justice and goodness of God. 

Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



V. 

POEM, 

BY TOM TAYLOE. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN* 

Foully Assassinated, April 14, 1865. 

You lay a wreath on murdered Lincoln's bier, 
Tom, who with mocking pencil wont to trace, 

Broad for the self-complacent British sneer, 

His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face. 

His gaunt, gnarled hands, his unkempt, bristling hair. 

His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease. 
His lack of all we prize as debonair, 

Of power or will to shine, of art to please; 

* This tribute appeared in the London Punch, which, up to the time of the assassina- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln, had ridiculed and maligned him with all its well-known powers of 
pen and pencil. It is the poem alluded to on page 402. 



APPENDIX. 501 

You, -whose smart pen backed up the pencil's laugh, 
Judging each step as though the way were plain. 

Reckless, so it could point its paragraph 
Of chief's perplexity, or people's pain: 

Beside this corpse, that bears for winding-sheet 
The Stars and Stripes he lived to rear anew. 

Between the mourners at his head and feet. 
Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? 

Tes: he had lived to shame me from my sneer, 

To lame my pencil, and confute my pen; 
To make me own this hind of princes peer. 

This rail-splitter a true-born king of men. 

My shallow judgment I had learned to rue. 

Noting how to occasion's height he rose; 
How his quaint wit mLade home-truth seem more true; 

How, iron-like, his temper grew by blows. 

How humble, yet how hopeful, he could be; 

How, in good fortune and in ill, the same; 
Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he. 

Thirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame. 

He went about his work, — such work as few 
Ever had laid on head and heart and hand, — 

As one who knows, where there's a task to do, 

Man's honest will must Heaven's good grace command; 

Who trusts the strength will with the burden grow, 
That God makes instruments to work his will, 

If but that will we can arrive to know. 

Nor tamper wdth the weiglits of good and ilL 

So he went forth to battle, on the side 

That he felt clear was Liberty's and Right's, 

As in his peasant boyhood he had plied 

His warfare with rude Nature's thwarting mights; 

The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil. 
The iron-bark, that turns the lumberer's ax, 



502 APPENDIX. 

The rapid, that o'erbears the boatman's toil, 

The prairie, hiding the mazed wanderer's tracks, 

The ambushed Indian, and the prowling bear, — 
Such were the deeds that helped his youth to train: 

Rough culture, but such trees large fruit may bear, 
If but their stocks be of right girth and grain. 

So he grew up, a destined work to do. 

And lived to do it: four long-suffering years' 

Ill-fate, ill-feeling, ill-report, lived through, 
And then he heard the hisses change to cheers. 

The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise, 

And took both with the same unwavering mood; 

Till, as he came on light, from darkling days. 

And seemed to touch the goal from where he stood, 

A felon hand, between the goal and him. 

Reached from behind his back, a trigger prest. 

And those perplexed and patient eyes were dim, 
Those gaunt, long-laboring limbs were laid to rest! 

The words of mercy were upon his lips. 
Forgiveness in his heart and on his pen. 

When this vile murderer brought swift eclipse 
To thoughts of peace on earth, good-will to men. 

The Old "World and the New, from sea to sea, 
Utter one voice of sympathy and shame: 

Sore heart, so stopped when it at last beat high; 
Sad life, cut short just as its triumph came! 

A deed accurst! Strokes have been struck before 
By the assassin's hand, whereof men doubt 

If more of horror or disgrace they bore; 

But thy foul crime, like Cain's, stands darkly out. 

Vile hand, that brandest murder on a strife, 

Whate'er its grounds, stoutly and nobly strivenj 

And with the martyr's crown crownest a life 
With much to praise, little to be forgiven. 



INDEX. 



Abolitionists, melting into the new par- 
ty, 150; trying to convert Mr. Lincoln, 
155; not yet ready to follow him, 170 

Anderson, Maj. R., in command of Fort 
Sumter, 105 

Anti-coercion meetings at the North, 223 

Antietam Creek, battle of , 325 ; President's 
doubt as to its being a victory, 334 

Armstrong, Jack, of Clary's Grove, wrest- 
ling match with Lincoln, 7G 

Armstrong, Hannah, appealing to Lincoln 
to defend her son, 104; forebodings of 
Lincoln's assassination, 198 

Armstrong, Wilham D., son of Jack and 
Hannah, accused of murder and de- 
fended by Lincohi, 1G3 

Arlington House, Lee family mansion, 
Rebel flag on, 2;i5-2;i8 

Army of the Potomac, representative ar- 
my, S'M 

Army organization, complications of State 
and National authoritj-, 268; difficul- 
ties, 271 ; formative processes, 2*^ 

Assassination, conspiracy and prepara- 
tions for, l.W; accf)niplished, 45it; com- 
ments of European powers and press, 
40-1. 

Ashman, George, Chairman of Chicago 
Nat. Rep. Convention, 184; appoint- 
ment to meet President, etc., 459 

Baker, E. D., Lincoln's withdrawal in his 
favor as a candidate for Congress, 128 

Baltimore, Secession feeling in, 204 ; attack 
upon Massachusetts 0th Reg., 230; city 
captured bv troops under Gen. B. F. 
Butler, 232-i3fi ; Nuti(jnal Convention of 
Rep. party held there, 42*! 

Bates, Edward, appointed Attorney-Gen- 
eral, 215; resigned, 442 

Beauiegard, Gen. P. G. T., in command of 
Rebel troops at Manassas Junction, 2.'>4 

Bcrrv. business partner of Lincoln in New 
^ialem, !i4-!t6 

Big Bethel, fight, 2.=vl 

Blackhawk War, outbreak of, 81; Still- 
man's defeat, 85; Independent Spy 
Company, HH 

Black.stone's Commentaries, borrowed of 
JohnT. Stuart by Lincohi. 101 

Blair, Montgomery, Postmaster-General, 
215 ; opposed to Proclamation of Eman- 
cipation, 3;i3; resigned, 442 

Blockade of Southern seaports, first pro- 
clamation of, :;.',tO; effectiveness of, 202 

Blootnington, III., State Convention of 
Auti- Nebraska men held there, 155; 
speech of IMr. Lincoln, 1.57 

Bootli, .lolin Wilkes, actor and assassin, 
4.5;(; death of. 460 

Border States, saved to the Union, 197, 221, 
350; furnishing volimteers for the ar- 
my, S.").",; disturbed by Emancipation, 
5f, 874 



865, reconstruction of 



Brandy Station, battle of, 388 

Breckinridge, great speech in murder- 
case and repulse of young Lincoln's 
compliments, 58 

Breckinridge, John C, Vice-President, 160: 
nomination for President, 184 

Bryant, WUliam CuUen, presided at 
Cooper Institute meeting and intro- 
duced Mr. Lincoln, 179 

Buchanan, James, nominated for Presi- 
dent, 160; character of his administra- 
tion, 190-196; accompanies Mr. Lincoln 
at his inauguration, 208 

BuU Run, battle of, 255; effects of, 257; 
false accounts of, 265 

Bumside, Gen. Ambrose E., succeeded 
McCleUan in command, 326; successes 
in North Carohna, 350; plan of cam- 
paign on Potomac, 356; removal from 
command, 358; commanded in Ohio, 
378; further services, 414 

Bushnell C. S., and the construction of the 
Monitor, 298 

Butler, Gen. B. F., commanding Massachu- 
setts troops in Maryland, 2.33; sus- 
pends wi-it of Habeas Corpus, 236; cap- 
ture of Baltimore, 2S6; declares fugi- 
tives from slavery contraband, 277 

Butler, William, friend with whom Lincohi 
boarded, 118 

Cabinet, the, formation of, 189, 214; Opin- 
ions with reference to Fort Sumter, 222 

Calhoun, surveyor of Sangamon Coxmty, 95 

Call for troops, first, 224; from four States 
to rep>el second invasion, 389 

Cameron, Sunon, Secretary of War, 214; 
resignation of, 316 

Canipbell, J. A., at Peace Conference in 
Hampton Roads, 446; action with ref- 
erence to Lee's surrender, 455 

Carpenter, Frank B., painting picture of 
first reading of Emancipation Procla- 
mation, 332; conversations with Mr. 
Lincohi, 333 

Cartwright, Rev. Peter, candidate for Con- 
gress against Lincoln and defeated, 133 

Central Illinois Gazette, newspaper nomi- 
nation of Lincoln for the Presidency, 
174 

Civil war, threats of, in case of Lincoln's 
election, 160; termination of, 455 

Champaign County, lU., Lincoln retires 
from a murder-case in, 140; received 
there the news of his votes for Vice- 
President, 160; nominated first for 
President in, 174 

ChanceUorsville, battle of, etc., 386, 387 

Chantilly, battle of, 231 

Charleston, S. C, forts in and about har- 
bor of, 195; capture of, by Union troops, 
446 

Chase, Salmon P., candidacy at Chicago, 
183; Secretary of the "Treasury, 815, 



504 



INDEX. 



270; resiprned, 442; appointed Chief 

Justice of the Supreme Court, 443 
Chicago, RepubUcan National Convention 

in 1860, l&i 
Clary's Grove Boys, character of, 76; elect 

Lincoln their captain, 83 
Clay, Henry, political idol of Lincoln, 128; 

defeat of, for Presidency, 130; put 

aside, 135; funeral oration by Lincohi, 

145 
Colonization, chimerical ideas entertained, 

etc., 145; recommended in Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation, 365 
Commissioners, Confederate, not recog- 
nized, 217 
Committee on the Conduct of the War, 290 
Compensation for slaves of loyal owners, 

365 
Confederacy, Southern, formation of, 195; 

first army of, 225 
Congress of United States, call for extra 

session, 227; first war-legislation, 259, 

267 
Constitutional Amendment prohibiting 

slavery, 445 
Cooper Institute speech, 178 
Copperheads, name given to Northern 

Rebels, 214; useful allies of the South, 

287,389 
Crawford, Josiah, owner of " Weems' Life 

of Washington" spoiled by Lincoln, 45 
Crisis, financial, of 1837, 119 
Crittenden Compromise, failure of, 213 
Cruelty to Animals, lecture and essay by 

young Lincoln, 43. 

Davis, David, appointed to the Supreme 
Court, etc., 443 

Davis, Jefferson, President of the Confede- 
racy, 213; predicts a bloody war, 222; 
urges Virginia to hostilities, 232 

Dayton, WiUiam L., candidate of People's 
pai-ty for Vice-President, 159 

Debating Club, of Gentryville, Ind., 56; of 
New Salem, 111., 91 

Decatur, 111,, town of, near first settlement 
of Lincoln family, 65; Lincoln's first 
stump-speech in Illinois made there, 

Democratic party, condition of, in 1854, etc., 
146; division of, in 1660, 184; conven- 
tion of, in 1864, 431, 435 

Dennison, Gov. W., of Ohio, Chairman of 
Republican National Convention, 430; 
Postmaster-General, 442 

District of Columbia, compensated emanci- 
pation is advocated by Lincoln, 136: 
political condition of, in 1861, 205, 349 

Dorsey, Hazel, one of Lincoln's Indiana 
school-teachers, 36 

Douglas, Stephen A., rival of Lincoln in 
courtship, 121; author of Kansas-Ne- 
braska Act, 146; speech at Springfield, 
111., replied to by Lincoln, 147; candi- 
date for re-election to U. S. Senate, 167; 
elected, 173; nominated for President, 
184 

Draft Act, recommended to Congress, 371 ; 
opposition to. increasing, 383,387,396; 
riot in New York City, 397, 400 

Edwards, Matilda, story of, 122 



Edwards. Ninian, brother-in-law of Mrs. 
Lincoln, 121 

Eighth Regiment Massachusetts Militia, 
reach Maryland imder Gen. Butler, 233 

Election, results of, in 1860, 187; in 1863, 
416; in 1864,441 

Electoral Colleges, report of votes in 1860, 
187; in 1864. 442 

Ellsworth, Colonel, death of, 246 

Emancipation, right and power, 329, 331; 
Congressional preparation for, 330; 
reading of, 832, 334; second proclfima- 
tion, 365, 368 

England, sympathy with and support of 
Confederacy, 249, 261, 383; warned not 
to interfere, 263; declaration of neu- 
trahty not received, 264; conduct in 
Trent affair, 352 

Enqxiirer, Richmond, Va., newspaper de- 
mand for resimiption of ownership of 
District of Columbia by Virginia and 
Blaryland, 219 

Everett, Edward, candidate of Constitu- 
tional Union party for Vice-President 
in 1860, ia5 

Executive Mansion, Wasliington, D. C, 
packed with office-seekers, 215; busi- 
ness arrangements of, 243; mails of. 



Federal party, death of, 90 

Female suffrage, assent to, in Lincoln's 
address, etc., 112 

Fessenden, William P., appointed Secretary 
of the Treasury, 442; resigned, 452 

Fillmore, Millard, Vice-President, 135; 
nominee of Constitutional Union party 
for President m 1860, 160 

Finances, United States, Lincoln's training 
for, 106, 113: Congress makes first war- 
loan, 260; European opinion of, 261; 
new loans and national banking sys- 
tem, 372, 373 

Floyd, Secretary of War under Buchanan 
Administration, 196 

Forebodings concerning assassination, 198 

Fort Sumter, siege of, begins, 195; bom- 
bardment of, 220; news of capture re- 
ceived at Washington, 222 

Fourth of July, celebration in Washington 
in 1863, 411 

France, sympathy with Confederacy, 249, 
261, 383; warned not to interfere, 263; 
declaration of neutrality not received, 
264 

Fredericksburg, battle of, 356. 358 

Fremont, Gen. John C, nominated for 
President by the People's party in 
1856, 159; appointed to command De- 
partment of the West, 309; proclama- 
tion of confiscation, etc., issued by, 
311; services, 313, 350; reference to, in 
letter of President, 331 

Game and hunting in Indiana, 53 
Gentry, Allen, Lincoln's companion in first 
flat-boat trip down the Mississippi, 60, 64 



Gentry, Gentryville, store and vuiage in 
Indiana, 36, 49; Lincoln's clerkship 
there, 56; at Gentry's Landing and on 
flat-boat owned by Gentry, 60, 64 

Germany, sympathy with Union cause, 383 



INDEX. 



505 



Gettysburg, battle of, 392, 394; estimate of 
forces euRaged, 395; dedication of 
cemetery and speeches, 414 

Gist. Governor of South Carolina in 1860, 
issued circular letter to other Southern 
States, 193 

Gosport Navy Yard, Norfolk, Va., burning 
of, etc., ai8, 2.3.5 

Graham, Minter, schoolmaster of New Sa- 
lem, ni., advises Lincoln to study gram- 
mar, 78; instructs him in surveying, 
95 

Grant, Gen. Ulysses S., President's letter 
to him, 415; appointed to Military De- 
partment of the West, 421 ; Lieutenant- 
General in command of all armies, 
423; Lincoln's opinion of him, 424; cor- 
respondence with Lincoln on army 
plans, 443; in front of Richmond, 453 

Greeley, Horace, and the Niagara Falls 
Commissioners, 4.35 

Greene, Bowlin, helps buy Lincoln's effects 
at sheriff's sale, 97; took care of him 
during melancholia, etc., 109 

Grigsby, Aaron, brother-in-law of Lincoln, 
49 

Grigsby, Nat, Lincoln interrupts a speech 
to step down and speak to him, 129 

Habeas Corpus, Writ of, suspended in 
certain parts of Maryland, 2;3G; Gen- 
eral Proclamation, .339, 371 ; test-case in 
Ohio, 37H 

Hall, Levi, married Lincoln's step-sister 
and emigrated to Illinois with tum, 65 

Halleck, Gen. H. W., appointed General- 
in-Chief, 318; views of Pope's cam- 
paign, 322 

Hamlin. Hannibal, Vice-President, 183 

Hancock, (ien. \V. S., remark in coimcil of 
war at Gfttysbiu-g, 394 

Hanks. Di-nnis, cousm and playfellow of 
Lincoln in Kentucky, 19; in Indiana, 
27; goes to Illinois, 05; works with 
him, ti7 

Hanks, John, settled in lUinois and drew 
the Lincolns to follow, (55; caused Lin- 
coln's first speech in Illinois, 08; com- 
panion in flat-boat voyage, etc., 09; 
gave him the name and fame of " Rail- 
splitter," IHl 

Hardin, (ieneral, Lincoln withdrew in his 
favor, as candidate for Congress, in 
1846, 132 

Harper's Ferry, arsenal burned, 235; sur- 
render of troops in 1802, 325 

Harris. Miss C, with the President when 
he was murdered, 459 

Hfirrison, George W., returned from Black- 
hawk War in company with Lincoln, 
88 

Harrison, political campaign, 120 

Hay, Colonel John, Private Secretary to 
the President, 210; sent to meet Con- 
federate envoys at Niagara, 430 
Hazel, Caleb, second schoolmaster of Lin- 
coln in Kentucky, 18 
Ilerndon, I. and R., brothers, businessmen 
of New Salem, 111., intimate friends of 
Lincoln, 94 
Herndon, William H., law-partner of Lin- 
coln, 131; corresponded with him in 



Congress, 134; report of Lincoln's de- 
spair of poUtical affairs, 142; prevented 
by Lincoln from going to Kansas, 154; 
signed Lincoln's name to the call for 
the Bloomington Convention, 156; 
makes half of his next audience, 158; 
shrinking consequences a little, 169; the 
old law-sign not to be taken down, 198 

HUl, Samuel, Lincoln's infidel manuscript 
read and bm-ned in stoi-e of, 103 

Holt, Joseph, Secretary of War at the 
close of the Buchanan Administration, 
196 

Hooker, Gen. Joseph, succeeded Bmnside 
in command of Army of the Potomac, 
359, 385; resigned, 392; fm-ther services, 
414 

House Divided against Itself, preparation 
and deUvery of speech, 109, 172. (See 
Appendix.) 

Hunter, R. M. T., at Peace Conference in 
Hampton Roads, 446 

Illinois Central Railroad, disputing law- 
fee demanded by Lincoln, 102 

Illinois, State of, Lincoln's emigration from 
Indiana to, 65; poUtics £ind financial 
excitement in, 92 

Inauguration, Presidential, features of, in 
1861,208; in 1865, 448 

Indiana, Territory and State, 19; Lincoln's 
first home there, 25 

Internal Improvements, a hobby of Lin- 
coln's early poUtical hfe, 92, 106, 118 

Invalid Corps, on duty in New York dur- 
ing Draft Riots, 398 

Jackson, Gen. Andrew, Lincoln a "Jack- 
son man," 92 

Jayne, W'ilUam, nominating Lincoln for 
the Legislature \N'ithout authority, 150 

Jewett, W. C, of Colorado, with the Rebel 
commissioners, 435 

Joint Debates of 1856, 160; of 1858, 173 

Johnson, Andrew, nominated for Vice- 
President, 430; Military Governor of 
Tennessee, 438; escapes assassination, 
etc., 458 

Johnson, Herschel V., Douglas-Democratic 
candidate for Vice-President, 184 

Johnston family, at tune of marriage of 
Mrs. Johnston with Thomas Lincoln, 33 

Johnston, John, step-brother of Lincoln, 
32; partner in second flat-boat voyage, 
69, 71 ; letter to him in last illness of 
Thomas Lincoln. 144 

Jones, keeper of country store in Gentry- 
ville, hired Lincoln as salesman, 56 

Journey to Washington in 1861, speeches 
and incidents, 201, 204 

Kansas-Nebraska Bill, reported to U. S. 

Senate in 18.54, 146 
Kansas Territory and State, troubles in, 

l.M; stumping tour in, by Lincoln, 177; 

political troubles concerning niihtary 

management, 404, 406, 428 
Kean, Laura, actress at Ford's Theater at 

assassination of the President, 460 
Kentucky, neutraUty of, 258 
Ku-kpatrick, competitor of Lincohi for 

captaincy in Illinois Volimteers, 82 



506 



INDEX. 



Lamon, Ward H., associate counsel with 
Lincoln, 140; duties at the "White 
House, a43 

Lane, Senator James, of Kansas, speech in 
defense of Lincoln, 439 

Lane, Joseph, proslavery Democratic can- 
didate for Vice-President in 1860, 184 

Lee, Gen. Robert E., ofiEered command of 
Union forces, 236; takes command of 
Virgioia State troops, 240; sinrender 
of, 455 

Letters of marque, Jefferson Davis issued 
proclamation offering, 250 

Lincoln, Abraham, birth and childhood, 
l»-34; brother, 21; schooUng, 18, 35, 37, 
43; bodily strength, 37, 55. 98; books, 
40, 44, 46, 78; writmg, 43; first stump- 
speaking, 48, 68; early temperate hab- 
its, 48; clerk in a coimtry store, 56; 
first law-stucUes, 51, 56; sociability, 54; 
first flat-boat voyage, 60; removal from 
Indiana to Illinois, 65; second flat-boat 
voyage, 69; inventor, 70; clerk of elec- 
tion, 74; miller, 75; wrestler, 72, 76; 
captain of volunteers in the Blackhawk 
War. 82; private soldier, 88; candidate 
for the State Legislature, 91 ; merchant, 
94; law-student, 94; surveyor, 95; post- 
master, 95; bankrupt, 96; first love, 99; 
elected to the State Legislature, 101; 
skeptic, 103; temporary insanity, 108, 
123; correspondence with Mary Owens, 
111; antislavery protest in Illinois 
Legislatiu-e, 115; admitted to the bar, 
118: betrothal to Mary Todd, 121; duel 
with Shields, 124; marriage, 125; ad- 
mitted to practice in U. S. Circuit 
Court, 127; elected to Congress, 133; 
death of his father, 144; first reply to 
Douglas, 147; defeated candidate for 
the United States Senate, 152, 169, 173; 
Bloomington speech, 156; candidate for 
Vice-President of the United States, 
159; "House divided against itself" 
speech, 170; editorial nomination for 
President of the United States, 174; 
Cooper Institute speech, 178; rail-spUt- 
ter, 181 ; nomination for the Presidency 
bj the Republican National Conven- 
tion, 183; elected President, 186; poUcy 
before inaugiu-ation, 190; farewell 
speech to citizens of Springfield, 202; 
inauguration, 209; selection of Cabinet, 
214; mUitary student, ^45; read no let- 
ters, 283; procures the construction of 
the Monitor 298; Proclamation of 
Emancipation, 830, 333, 334; visiting 
Army of Potomac, 340; loss of little 
WiUie, 345; letter to the armies on Sab- 
bath-keeping, 347; watching armies in 
the West, 351, 415; harassed to petu- 
lance, 882; calumny and abuse of, 402, 
425; "last, best, and shortest speech," 
408; consciousness of wearing out, 408; 
nominated for a second term, 429, 431 ; 
elected, 441; inaugm-ated, with ad- 
dress, etc., 448; last visit to the ar- 
my, 452; entry of Richmond after 
evacuation, 4.54; assassination, 459 

Lincoln, Mrs. Mary Todd, engagement to 
marry Abraham Lincoln, 131; author 
of the "Lost Townstdp Letters," 134; 



marriage, 125; her husband's business 
adviser, 139, 150, 162; life at the White 
House, 244, 403; calumniated, 375, 376; 
care of the President's personal ap- 
pearance, 403; prostrated by his assas- 
sination, 461. 

Lincoln, Mrs. Nancy Hanks, mother of 
Abraham Lincoln, Chapter I. ; death, 
30 

Lincoln, Mrs. Sally Johnston, step-mother 
of Abraham Lincoln, 32; his love for 
her, 34; care of her in later days, 131, 
144; visit to her before going to Wash- 
ington, and her forebodmgs, 198 

Lincoln, Robert Todd, son of Abraham 
Lincoln, childhood. 183; at school, 180; 
serving in the army, 418 

Lincoln, SaUy, or Nancy, sister of Abra- 
ham Lincoln, 17; marriage to Aaron 
Grigsby,48; death, 49 

Lincoln, Thomas, father of Abraham Lin- 
coln, personal character, etc.. Chapter 
I.; treatment of his son, 60; death, 
144 

Lincoln, Thomas, son of Abr^am Lincoln, 
"Little Tad," bu-th of, 144; Ulness, 344 

Lincoln, Willie, son of Abraham Lincoln, 
bu-th, 133; death, 844 

Logan, Stephen T., law-partner of Lin- 
coln, 131; defeated for Congress, 138; 
urging Lincoln not to give way for 
Trumbull, 152 

Long Bridge over Potomac, slenderly 
guarded, 335; crossed by Union forces, 
340 

Long, Dr., condoling with Lincoln, etc., 
173 

Long Nine, the, Sangamon County dele- 
gation in the lUinois Legislatm-e, 115 

Lost Township Letters, written by Mary 
Todd, story of, 134 

Macauley, Commodore, in command of 
Gosport Navy Yard, etc., 318 

Manassas, mihtary importance of, 254; Sec- 
ond Bull Run, battle of, 321 

Manchester, England, letter of working- 
men to President Lincoln, 412 

Maryland, State of, ready for secession, 
304, 331, 334, 849 

Massachusetts Sixth Regiment, mustered 
for service, 339; mobbed in Baltimore, 
230 

Massachusetts War-bUl passed, 201 

Meade, Gen. George G., in command of 
Army of Potomac, 390, 392, 430, 434 

Metzgar murder-case, 163 

Mexican War, opposed by Lincoln in Con- 
gress, 134 

McCiellan, Gen. Geo. B., appointed to com- 
mand, 273; systematizing Army of Po- 
tomac, 384; reports condition of army, 
autumn of 1801, 386; army idea of him, 
294; President's opinion of him, 300; 
return from Peninsula, 304, 321 ; re-as- 
cmnes command, 305, 334; poUtical as- 
pirations, 813,315; removed from com- 
mand, 326 ; nominated for President by 
the Opposition, 437 

McCulloch, Hugh, appomted Secretary of 
the Treasury, 453 

McDoweU, Gen. Irwin, in command of 



INDEX. 



507 



Union troops at the battle of Bull Run, 
255 

McNamar, McXefl, desertion of Ann Rut- 
ledge by, 100 

Milk-sick, nature and ravages of, 28 

MUl-dam at New Salem, on Sangamon 
River, on which LLQColn's flat-boat 
stuck, 70: aU now left of town, 73 

Mississippi River, control of upper waters 
retained, 197, 313; of mouth secured, 
850; entire control secured, 393 

Missouri, State of, saved from seceding, 
350; poUtical troubles in, 404, 406, 429 

Monitor iron-clad, fight with Merrimac, 
297; story of her construction, 298 

Montgomery, Ala., first seat of govern- 
ment of Southern Confederacy, 194 

National Rifles, Washington, D. C, sig- 
nificance of its history, 206, 236 
Navy of United States, beginnings of, 250 
Needham, Daniel, wrestling-match with 

Lincoln, 72 
New Orleans, effect of the capture of, 350 
New Salem. 111., character and population 

of, 71. 73 
New York Seventh Regiment, set out for 

Washington, 2.30; in Virginia, 241 
New York War-bill, passage of, 201 
Nicolay. John G., Private Secretary to 
President Lincoln, 216 

Office-seekers, first disappointment of, 
by Lincoln, 188; throngs of them at 
White House, 207, 215 

Offutt, Denton, employs Lincoln, etc., to 
build flat-boat, 69, 70; ditto as salesman 
in New Salem, 74; failure, 81; 

Oglesby, Gov. Richard, action at Decatur 
Convention, 180 

Ohio, poUtical speeches in, by Lincoln, 177 

Ord, Gen. E. O. C, member of President 
Lincoln's last council of war, 453 

Ordinance of Secession of Virginia, 239 

Oregon Territory, governorship of, refused 
by Lincohi, 138 

Owens, Mary, correspondence with Lin- 
cohi, 111, 120 

Paei, John, with W. H. Hemdon, Lincoln's 
audience at State House in Springfield, 
158 

Peace Commissioners at Niagara Falls, 
435, et seq 

Peace Conference in Hampton Roads, 446 

Peace Congress, failure of, 213 

Pendleton, George H., Democratic nomi- 
nee for Vice-President, 437 

Peninsular campaign, plan for, adopted, 
295; close of, 300 

Pennsylvania, War-bill passed, 201; 5th 
Reg't Mihtia reaches Washington, 229; 
invasion of, by Lee's armv, 390 

Pensacola, Florida, navy-yard surrendered 
and forts besieged, "l95 

People's party, organization and National 
Convention of, 159 

Peoria, 111., speech by Lincoln in reply to 
Douglas, 149 

Pickens, Governor, of South Carolina, 220 

Pickett, Gen., leader of last charge of bat- 
tle of Gettysburg, 294 



Pirates, Confederate privateers so declared 

by proclamation, 250 
Polk, James K., President, course of, on 

Mexican question, 134 
Pope, Gen. John, La command of the Army 

of Virginia, 303; drifted out of it, 305; 

conduct and reports of, 321, 322 
Posey, reply to his speech at Decatur, Dl., 

by Lincoln, 68 
Press, liberty of, restricted, 376, 377 
Private secretaries of the President, 216; 

offices and duties of, 243, 282 
Protest, antislavery, in Legislature of II- 

Unois, by Lincohi and Stone, 115 
Punch, London journal, versified obituary 

on Lincoln, 402^ (See Appendix.) 

Radford store in New Salem mobbed, etc., 

93 
Rail-sphtter, origin and occasion of title, 

Rathbone, Major Henry, with the President 

at Ford's Theater, 459 
Reconstruction, beginnings of, 374, 375; 

act providing for, passed and vetoed, 

4S4 
Regular army, increased at the beginning, 

etc., 237 
Republican party, elements of, 148; in 

Congress, 162; first State Convention 

of. in nUnois, 168; second ditto, 180; 

first National Convention, 182; second 

ditto, 426 
Richmond, Virginia, latent Unionism in, 

204 
Riney. Zachariah, first schoolmaster of 

Lincoln, 18 
Roby, Polly, anecdotes of, and Lincoln, 

43,61 
Russia, friendship for United States, 384 
Rutledge, Ann, story of her first betrothal, 

99; to Lmcohi, 107; death, 108 
Rutledge, James, miU-owner at New Sa- 
lem, prevents fight, etc., 77; urged lin- 

coln to run for Legislature, 91 

Sangamon River, house built and work 
done on bank of, by Abraham Lincoln, 
67; flat-boat built there by him, 69; 
piloting flat-boat do\^Ti it in a flood, 74; 
testing it for steamboat navigation, 79 

Sangamontown, strolls into, 70 

Schoolmasters of Abraham Lincoln, Zach- 
ariah Riney, 18; Caleb Hazel, 18; Ha- 
zel Dorsey, 35, 40; Andrew Crawford, 
42; Minter Graham, 78 

Scott, Gen. Winfield, directing organiza- 
tion of District of Columbia militia, 
206; co-operating with President Lin- 
coln in 1861, 207; advising appointment 
of Gen. McClellan, 273; resignation and 
retirement, 274 

Secession, original purposes, 211 ; ripened 
by Lincoln's election, 192; cotton-States 
act, 194; Virginia Act, 240; recognized 
only as sedition, 224, 227, 374 

Second term, beginning of poUtical cam- 
paign for, 421, 428 

Seventh Regiment, N. Y. N. G., 230 

Seward, William H., "Irrepressible Con- 
flict" services, 171 ; candidate for Presi- 
dential nomination, 182; appointed Sec- 



508 



INDEX. 



retary of State, 214; personal relations 
to Mr. Lincoln, 249; wounded by assas- 
sins, 458 

Seymour, Horatio, anti-administration 
(Governor of New York, 396, 400; Chair- 
man of Democratic National Conven- 
tion, 437 

Shakespeare, read by Ldncoln while riding 
the Judicial District circuit, 139 

Shawneetowm, charter of bank at, 106 

Sherman, Gen. W. T., in command of the 
Western armies, 423; march to the sea, 
442; President's doubt of its wisdom 
443; northward movement begun, 446 
at council of war near Richmond, 453 , 

Shields, Gen. James, challenging Lincoln 
to fight a duel, 124; candidate for re- 
election to U. S. Senate, 150. 151 

Shiloh (Corinth), battle of, and proclama- 
tion of thanksgiving, 346 

Short, assisting Lincoln in his bankruptcy, 
97,100 

Siege of Yorktown, Va., 249 

Slavery, opposition to the extension of, 
134, 136, 146, 154; Southern ambition 
of a slave-holder's empire, 211 

Slemmer, Lieutenant, in command of Pen- 
sacola navy-yard and forts, 196 

Smith, Caleb B., Secretary of the Interior, 
215 

Smoot, lending Lincoln money to take him 
to VandaUa, 102 

South Carolina, taking the lead in seced- 
ing, 192, 194 

Southern Army, its beginning, 218; in- 
crease, etc., 270 

South Moimtain, battle of, 825 

Sparrow, Thomas and Betsy, related to the 
Lincoln family, follow them to Indi- 
ana, 27; death of, 29 

Speed, James, appointed Attorney-General, 

Springfleld, Illinois, State Capital removed 
from VandaUa to Springfield, 118 

Stanton, Edwin M., Secretary of War, 316; 
characteristics, etc., 317, 318 

Star of the West, steamer, taking suppUes 
to Fort Sumter, fired upon, 195 

State rights, care taken not to infringe, 239 

Stephens, Alex. H., friendship with Lin- 
coln begim in Congress, 137; Vice- 
President of Confederacy and confer- 
ence in Hampton Roads, 446 

Stewart, Joseph F., pursuing Booth upon 
the stage, 460 

Stoddard, WiUiam O., Secretary to the 
President to sign land-patents, acting 
as Assistant Private Secretary, 216 

Stone, Gen. Charles P., important services 
at outset, 206 

Stuart, John T., first law-partner of BIr. 
Lincoln, 118; elected to Congress, 131; 
prophetic conversation with Mr. Lin- 
coln, 141 ; attempt to keep Mr. Lincoln 
a conservative, 156 

Suffrage, negro, ideas of President, etc., 
367 

Swett, Leonard, associate-counsel with 
Lincoln, 140 

Taylor, James, Lincoln employed by, as 
boy-of-all-work, 53 



Taylor, Gen. Zachary, President, 135 

Texas, surrender of U. S. forts, etc., 196 

Thanksgiving and prayer, proclamations 
appointing days of, 419, 420 

Thompson, Col. Samuel, commanding reg- 
iment in which Lincoln served in Black- 
hawk War, 83 

Trent affair, capture of Mason and SUdell 
by Captain Wilkes, 352, 354 

Trent Brothers, traders to whom Lincoln 
sold out and who caused his bank- 
ruptcy, 94, 96 

Tritnme, New York, comment upon the 
Cooper Institute speech, 180 

Tnunbull, Lyman, elected Senator of Uni- 
ted States, 152; coiuse in Senate, 153; 
political soundness as an adviser, 
167 

Turnham, David, lent Lincoln his first law- 
book 51 

Twelfth N.Y.Keg't, arrival in Washington, 
etc., 207 

Twiggs, General, treacherous conduct in 
Texas, 196 

Unconditional Union Men, Mass Conven- 
tion at Springfield, lU., 410 

Union League, origin and organization of, 
363; spread and value of, 371; first 
grand councU, 405; second ditto, 428 

Vallandigham, Clement L., course in 
Congress, 259, 377; convicted of sedi- 
tion by court-martial, 378, 379; sent 
across the fines, 379, 381 ; candidate for 
Governor of Ohio and defeated, 380; at 
Chicago Democratic Convention, 437 

VandaUa, former capital of State of Illi- 
nois, Lincoln's first journey there, 
102, 104 

Vicksburg, surrender of, 393 

Virginia, State of. Act of Secession, 228, 
240; invasion of, by Union forces, 240, 
241 

Volimteers, Union, first call for, issued, 237 

War, acts of, by South, during Buchanan's 
Administration, 195, 196 

Washuigton City, disloyal character of its 
population in 1861, 205 

Weitzel, Gen., first forces to enter city of 
Richmond, 454 

WeUes, Gideon, Secretary of the Navy, 
215 

West Point, large number of its graduates 
in Rebel army, 218 

West Virginia, first action towards separa- 
tion, 276; admitted to the Union, 374 

Whig party, beginning of, 90, 92, 101 ; Con- 
gressional candidates in Sangamon 
District, 128; Presidential campaign, 
1850, 135; disintegration, 147; reUcs of, 
in 1860, 184 

Whiteside, General, in command of lUinois 
Volimteers in the Blackhawk War, 83, 
85; re-enlisted as a private, 88; second 
to Shields in duel, 124 

Wood, Fernando, amnesty correspondence 
with the President, 361 

Zouaves, Ellsworth's, conveyed'to Alexan- 
dria by steamer, 240 



J^yijg 



